Bo Notini

Bo Notini (1910–1975) was a Swedish industrial designer, illustrator, decorative painter, and sculptor. His work moved across several creative fields, including lighting, metalwork, illustration, sculpture, and public decoration. He is particularly associated with lighting designs for Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik and Konstverkstäderna Glössner & Co., as well as candlesticks for Svenskt Tenn during the early 20th century.

Biography

Bo Ragnar Notini was born in Södertälje in 1910. He came from an artistic family as the son of the artist Gunnar Notini and the grandson of the stucco artist Axel Notini. He studied at Filip Månsson’s painting school and later at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, where he developed a broad artistic foundation.

Notini worked across several disciplines, combining industrial design with illustration, decorative painting, and sculpture. His versatility made him part of a generation of Swedish designers who moved freely between art, craft, and applied design. He illustrated books, including Bonnier’s 1954 edition of Selma Lagerlöf’s Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige, as well as Lennart Hellsing’s children’s book Katten blåser i Silverhorn from 1945.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Notini designed lighting for Arvid Böhlmarks Lampfabrik and for Konstverkstäderna Glössner & Co. His lighting work reflects the Swedish modern design language of the period, where functional objects were given a refined decorative character through proportion, material, and carefully balanced form.

Notini also designed candlesticks for Svenskt Tenn in connection with the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930. This placed his work within an important moment in Swedish design history, when modern ideas about interiors, craftsmanship, and everyday objects were being presented to a broader public.