Elsa Gullberg (14 March 1886 – 1 March 1984) was a Swedish interior architect and textile designer. She was a pioneer of modern textile design in Sweden and played an instrumental role in transforming the textile industry. She was one of the renowned Swedish textile designers including Erik Wettergren,

Carl Bergsten Carl Gustaf Bergsten (10 May 1879 in Norrköping - 22 April 1935 in Stockholm) was a Sweden, Swedish architect. He graduated in 1901 from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology and three years later from the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in ...

and Gregor Paulsson, who worked to modernize textile industries in Sweden.

Biography

Elsa Gullberg was born on 14 March 1886 in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

, Sweden. She studied textile crafts at the Art and Design School in Stockholm. After completing her studies, she started her career as an assistant to

Lilli Zickerman Emma Carolina Helena "Lilli" Zickerman (29 May 1858 – 5 September 1949) was a Swedish textile artist who pioneered the Swedish Handicraft Association () in 1899. In 1914, she embarked on the creation of an inventory of popular textile art in Sw ...

, an influential figure in textile design, at the Association for Swedish Homework. She was part of a group of reformers who wanted to modernize the production process of Swedish textile industries. She visited a number of textile firms in different countries to incorporate new ideas in the Swedish textile sector. She was highly influenced by the designing and production process undertaken at the

Deutscher Werkbund The Deutscher Werkbund (; ) is a German association of artists, architects, designers and industrialists established in 1907. The ''Werkbund'' became an important element in the development of modern architecture and industrial design, parti ...

and Dresdner Werkstätte in Germany, and the

Wiener Werkstätte The Wiener Werkstätte ("Vienna Workshop"), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that brought to ...

in Austria. The Swedish Society of Crafts and Design was reorganized in 1915. The educational practices related to arts and crafts were redesigned in line with modernizing Swedish textile industries. In 1927, she started Sweden’s first modern interior design firm ''Elsa Gullberg Textil og Inredningar AB'', which focused on tradition-based styles. At the World’s Fair in New York, one of her famous designs, ''Lilies'', was exhibited in 1939. She died on 1 March 1984 in

Vaxholm Vaxholm is a city, urban area and the seat of Vaxholm Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It occupies the islands of Vaxön and Kullö in the Stockholm archipelago. The name Vaxholm comes from Vaxholm Fortress, which was constructed in 154 ...

, in Stockholm County, Sweden.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gullberg, Elsa 1886 births 1984 deaths Swedish architects Swedish textile designers 20th-century Swedish women artists 20th-century Swedish architects 20th-century Swedish textile artists People from Malmö