Anders Beckman

Anders Beckman (1907-1967)

Anders Beckman was a pioneer in modern Swedish advertising art and a well-known poster artist. Beckman was in charge of prestigious commissions such as the marketing of the Swedish Pavilion at the world Fair in New York in 1939 and the graphic design of the Helsingborg Exhibition, H55, among other things.

In 1939 he founded Beckman´s School, a publicity school, where the students were trained in advertising skills, fashion and illustration. The students on the fashion programme were trained to create textile patterns, characteristic for the period. Anders Beckman contributed with two patterns to ”Signed Textile”: ”West Coast” and ”Smoke”. This was the first time that the advertising expert Anders Beckman drew patterns for textile prints. He was of the opinion that the same freedom existed when you composed a textile pattern as when you composed for advertising purposes and while the ever-present cigar in his hand sent its smoke upwards, the pattern ”Smoke” curled its way continually upwards.

The original of the pattern for ”Smoke” is a gouache painted on a white background with black loops and the broad lines have a light mauve colour at the edges. Here to the right printed on robust, smooth cotton satin and to the left a burn-out. The burn-out is of course a modern interpretation of the pattern, which Anders’ daughters have approved of with the words; ”If this technique had been available in the 50’ies, Father would certainly have liked that variant of the pattern!”