Folded Beauty

Autumn Exhibition
8.9.2010 - 23.1.2011
Press Release June 2010

General Press information

Imperial Furniture Collection
Schloß Schönbrunn Kultur- und Betriebsges.m.b.H.
press information

Vienna, around 1900

Around 1900, all fields of art in Vienna set out in search of innovation. In 1897, the Secession left the Künstlerhaus society of artists. With the exhibition building designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908) in1898, the Secession gave modern art a home under the motto “DER ZEIT IHRE KUNST – DER KUNST IHRE FREIHEIT” (to every age its art, to art its freedom).

At the same time, new directors representing a younger generation were appointed at the Österreichische Museum für Kunst und Industrie (Austrian Museum for Art and Industry) and at the Kunstgewrbeschule (School of Applied Arts). Soon after these changes, Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) and Kolo Moser (1868-1918) started teaching at the Kunstgewerbeschule.

This led to an aesthetic renewal also in the area of interior decoration. The theoretical foundations of the reform of Viennese design at the turn of the century were laid by Otto Wagner (1841-1918) in his book Modern Architecture, first published in 1896. In this book, Wagner – who had been appointed professor of architecture at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in 1894 – demanded a new style created by artists instead of the Historicist plurality of styles. He wrote, “All modern forms must correspond to the new materials and meet the requirements of the present time, if they are to be found suitable for mankind today.”

In accordance with Wagner’s motto “(…) nothing visible to the eye is created without being invested with artistic significance”, and inspired by the workshop concept of the English Arts and Crafts movement, Josef Hoffmannn and Kolo Moser set up the Wiener Werkstätte together with the financier and patron Fritz Waerndorfer in 1903 for the purpose of designing high-quality objects of use for all spheres of life.