From the mid-20th century onward, the Long Beach-based Frank Bros. emporium was at the forefront of modern furniture sales and marketing in the United States (1938-1982). In its heyday, Frank Bros. was the primary U.S. source for the most coveted mid-century design including Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, Van Keppel Green, Bruno Mathsson, Paul McCobb, and Knoll, among others. Frank Bros. also designed the interiors for more than half the Case Study Houses featured in Arts & Architecture magazine, helping define a modernism that was quintessentially Southern Californian.
Frank Bros.: The Store that Modernized Modern draws from the Frank Bros. archive at the Getty Research Institute and the Frank family personal collection, the exhibition will present the company’s arsenal of graphic material, as well as photographic documentation, travelcorrespondence, and newspaper advertisements.Larger-scale installations of mass-produced and prototypic original furniture and objects will allow visitors to understand the importance of display in a “pre-IKEA” marketplace.