ArtistSwedish
Märta Måås-Fjetterström
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Born in Kimstad, Östergötland, in 1873, Märta Måås-Fjetterström grew up as the daughter of a small-town minister. At seventeen she left home to study illustration at the School of Industrial Arts (now Konstfack) in Stockholm. After completing her training, she spent several years teaching at the Technical School in Jönköping while developing her own decorative woven works, which she first exhibited in 1900. Two years later, she was invited to work as a weaving instructor at the Kulturhistoriska föreningen in Lund, where she immersed herself in Scanian textile traditions.
In 1905 she was appointed to lead the newly established Malmöhus läns Hemslöjdsförening in Malmö. After six years she left following disagreements with the board, and in 1913 she joined the Hemslöjd weaving school in Vittsjö, where she worked alongside Lilli Zickerman on modernizing traditional pile rug designs. These years of absorbing regional weaving traditions formed the foundation of her mature artistic language.
In 1919, at the age of 46, she opened her own weaving studio in Båstad. The workshop quickly became a center for textile innovation. Måås-Fjetterström worked across multiple techniques: flossa (knotted pile), röllakan (Scandinavian flatweave), half-flossa combining pile tufts with a flatweave ground, and a distinctive discontinuous weft tapestry method that became known simply as the "MMF technique." She believed that "the connection between technique and form must never be broken." Her designs drew from Swedish folk art, Persian carpets, East Asian motifs, and the natural landscape of Halland. She collaborated with Carl Malmsten on commissions for the Swedish Institute in Rome, Ulriksdal Palace, and several Swedish embassies.
She received the Litteris et Artibus medal in 1924. Her ornamental weaves drew praise at the 1925 International Exhibition in Paris. Over her lifetime she created 662 hand-woven works, including such enduring designs as "Röda trädgårdsmattan," "Bruna heden," "Hästhagen," and "Ängarna." Her work entered the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
She died on 13 April 1941 in Helsingborg. The following year, the Båstad studio was reconstituted as AB Märta Måås-Fjetterström under the artistic direction of Barbro Nilsson, who recruited Marianne Richter and Ann-Mari Forsberg. The workshop continues to produce textiles from her original designs today.
On the Nordic auction market, her work appears regularly, with 106 items tracked across Swedish auction houses. Her pieces surface most frequently at Bukowskis Stockholm, Stockholms Auktionsverk Magasin 5, and Helsingborgs Auktionskammare. Top results include the flossa rug "Steninge" at 120,100 SEK, "Draperi med långbårder" in röllakan at 45,448 SEK, and "IL GRECO" at 40,000 SEK.