Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts, a MoMA publication, presents the first English translations of three seminal texts by pioneers of Swedish design.

The three founding texts are "Beauty in the Home" (1899), by the philosopher and critic Ellen Key; "Better Things for Everyday Life" (1919), by Gregor Paulsson, art historian and director of the Swedish Arts and Crafts Society from 1920 to 1934; and "acceptera" (1931), coauthored by Paulsson and the architects Gunnar Asplund, Sven Markelius, Eskil Sundahl, Uno Åhrén, and Wolter Gahn. Scholarly introductions by the editors of the volume—Lucy Creagh, Helena Kåberg, and Barbara Miller Lane—and an essay by architectural historian Kenneth Frampton exploring the "untimely timeliness" of Swedish modernism accompany and contextualize these translations.

The writings trace the progression of the Swedish modern movement from the late nineteenth century and encapsulate the movement's essential arguments: the necessity of artists' collaboration with industry; the inherent democracy of making good design affordable to all; and the social benefits of a well-designed environment. Through a shared belief in the transformative power of a well-designed environment, these texts played central roles in the development of modern thought on architecture, design, and society in twentieth-century Sweden.

This volume is part of an ongoing series published by The Museum of Modern Art's International Program that seeks to make crucial art-historical writings from regions outside the United States available in English. The other volumes in the series are Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s (2002); Listen, Here, Now! Argentine Art of the 1960s: Writings of the Avant-Garde (2004); and Alfredo Boulton and His Contemporaries: Critical Dialogues in Venezuelan Art, 1912–1974 (2008).

This publication was made possible by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation, Kerstin and Pontus Bonnier, Stockholm, and The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional support was provided by the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, Estrid Ericsons Stiftelse, and the Department of Art History, Uppsala University.

Related Event:

The Untimely Timeliness of Swedish Modernism

On October 30, 2008, to celebrate MoMA's publication of Modern Swedish Design: Three Founding Texts, Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, moderated a panel discussion at MoMA on the intellectual background and influence of modern Swedish architecture and design and the critical role of manifestos in architectural discourse. Participants included the coeditors and coauthors of the new publication: Lucy Creagh, architect and PhD candidate at Columbia University; Helena Kåberg, curator at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm; and Barbara Miller Lane, Emeritus Professor, Bryn Mawr College.

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This program was made possible by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. Additional support is provided by the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.