Women in ArkDes collection: Susanne Tucker

A key figure in the international promotion of Swedish design.

Susanne Tucker designed a large number of exhibitions for Svensk Form from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Although she built a strong reputation during those years, her archive in the ArkDes collection remained largely unknown until Marisa Cortright’s research.

There is little documented scholarship on the career of Susanne Wasson Tucker. Born in Vienna, she trained as an architect there. After working with Sune Lindström in 1939, she moved to the United States, where she contributed to architectural exhibitions at MoMA and designed products for Knoll.

Cortright’s research focused on the period following Tucker’s return to Sweden, when she produced numerous exhibitions for Svensk Form. She maintained extensive connections within Swedish manufacturing and coordinated a wide array of materials and products for exhibitions promoting Swedish design—particularly on the international stage. Correspondence in the archive reveals her as a key figure in presenting Swedish design abroad, through exhibitions in commercial settings as well as at embassies and consulates across North America and Europe.

This research positions Tucker’s career as an example of how exhibitions functioned as a form of design diplomacy—serving commercial and diplomatic purposes as much as artistic ones.