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DESIGNER PORTRAIT

Greta M. Grossman

1906 - 1999

Greta Magnusson Grossman (1906–1999) was an early pioneer in the

male dominated worlds of mid-century industrial and interior design

and architecture, gaining international recognition for her work. She

was born in Helsingborg, Sweden into a family of cabinetmakers.

Following in their footsteps, she became the first woman in the

workshop when she undertook a woodworking apprenticeship at a

young age.

In 1933, she married jazz musician Billy Grossman – and with the

onset of the Second World War, the couple decided to emigrate to

the United States. Upon arrival in California in 1940, she opened

a well-publicized store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, where she

was among the first to bring the Scandinavian modern aesthetic to

southern California’s burgeoning modernist scene.

Grossman’s unique approach to Swedish modernism was a hit in Los

Angeles. For her, good design was fundamentally humanistic; its role

was to support people’s daily lives in a relevant and engaging way,

and personal and social wellbeing were key considerations.