HOSKEN INC.

Bauhaus protégée, mid-century pioneer, feminist warrior—Fran Hosken (Austrian, 1919–2006) is the original multi-hyphenate of Modern design history. She was the third woman to be admitted to Harvard Graduate School of Design, one of the only female founders in Postwar America, and the first person to speak out against Female Genital Mutilation at the United Nations.

An architect by training, Fran operated Hosken Inc. from 1947 to 1951, producing furniture that appeared in MoMA “Good Design” collections and on the cover of House & Garden. A student of Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and György Kepes, Fran translated Bauhaus machine-poetics into wearable art, creating jewelry that is imaginative and playful. Going against the grain of craft narratives, the modularity and versatility of her spring-wire creations are singular in the landscape of Modernist jewelry.

The archival jewelry of Fran Hosken represents only a three-year output during Hosken Inc. Therefore, most of the pieces are in extremely small quantities, with many of them as the only example in existence.

For pricing and availability please contact the archive.