Swedish Inspired

Judith Johansson was a textile artist in Swedish during the mid-20th century. Her style, typical of Swedish fold designs, featured a variety of colors and patters inspired by nature and geometry. The popularity of her designs led to her opening a weaving studio in 1938 wit her husband in Knäred, Sweden and in 1945 she was working for Nordiska Kompaniet department stores designing their carpets. By the 1950s, Johansson’s carpets and textiles could be seen in churches and embassies. Her work was immensely popular and earned her many awards.

Agda Österberg (1891 – 1987)
Stockholm-based textile designer. Joined textile studio Libaria in 1924 where she served as Director and Artistic Director for ten years. In 1933 she started Three Streams in Varnhem where she created many church textiles and carpets for public areas. Her compositions are purely abstract or stylized plant motifs of the often strong color tones.

Elsa Gullberg (1886-1984)
Swedish textile artist Elsa Gullberg had an early beginning with weaving textiles. She studied art and design in Stockholm in the early 1900s and soon after started designed fabrics for other artisans and mass production. She started her own design studio Elsa Gullberg Textilier in 1927 which specialized in carpet and wall hanging design. 1955, Elsa stepped down and her daughter Elsa-Maria took charge of the studio. Today she is known as one of the first textile designers to look at the industrial limitations for textile fabrication.

Marianne Richter (1916-2010) was recruited at MMF by one of well-known MMF designers, Barbro Nilsson. Nilsson saw Richter’s talent in colors and trained her to be a colorist. Richter’s bold choices for whimsical and folk-art colors were her palette. Along with several series of gobelin tapestries, she designed rolakan and flossa.
She continued her career by teaching at Konsfack, designing for MMF and for other weaving mills. One of her featured works is the curtain for the UN Economic Council Chamber in NewYork, that she designed and was commissioned to oversee production.

Gunilla Lagerbielke (1926–2013) was a Swedish textile artist who exerted considerable influence on arts and crafts in Sweden as a result of her heading Konstfack and chairing the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. She is also remembered for the textile works she created with her husband Lars Johanson which were exhibited in Gothenburg in 1970.