Greta Magnusson Grossman studied at what today is Konstfack University of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm and became one of the first women to graduate as an interior architect and furniture designer in 1931. Two years later she founded her own design firm Studio in Stockholm from where she designed furniture and took on work as an interior architect and scenographer while also participating in several group exhibitions.
Her furniture designs were elegant, made in a futuristic functionalism with geometric shapes, blackened details and steel in combination with bright wood. In 1939 Magnusson Grossman studied architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology.
After her marriage with bandleader Billy Grossman, she moved with him to California. In USA Magnusson Grossman founded her own architectural and design studio, creating exclusive villas in the California style and designing furniture for several American companies. One of her bestsellers was a lounge chair from the Palisade collection she designed for Modern-Line in 1951. Other well-known pieces were the lamps Grasshopper (1947) and Cobra (1950) for producer Ralph O. Smith.
Magnusson Grossman also ran a boutique in Los Angeles where she sold Swedish modernistic furniture, lamps and other interior item. During the 1950’s Magnusson Grossman lectured at the UCLA in the same city.
Greta Magnusson Grossman died in 1999 at the age of 93. Although she became well-known in USA, Magnusson Grossman was practically un-known in her home country until 2010 when an exhibition of her work was shown at ArkDes – Sweden’s National Centre for architecture and design in Stockholm.
