Following Harald Szeemann’s «Visionnart Austria», the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels produced a new exhibition together with the MAK from Vienna, dedicated this time to the Wiener Werkstätte. Over a thousand objects from all over the world offer visitors a chronological vision of the 30 years of activity and creation by this movement of art and handicrafts. While presenting its ideology and its artistic program, it opens a dialogue with similar international models, both past and present.
All the fields of creation
The Wiener Werkstätte had interdisciplinary demands that forced it to take all the fields of creation into consideration, from architecture to interior decoration, including textiles, fashion, jewellery, ceramics, dishes and even postcards … They do not put forward individual masterpieces but rather the foundations of the movement, the extreme variety of the offer and its universal organization. The exhibition focuses on an in-depth analysis of the design and solutions offered to meet society’s needs at the beginning of the XXth century. What is of utter interest are the extremely wealthy archives shown for the first time to the general public and which include letters, photographs, documents, sketches, books of models, samples and instructions.
Emblematic works
Among the principal works shown in the exhibition, there is a dining room set by Hoffmann for Paul Wittgenstein (1906), an armchair from the Koloman Moser Villa (1901), a bookcase from a Berlin home of the Stonborough family (1905), a display cabinet Hoffmann created for a Wiener Werkstätte exhibition at the Mietke gallery (1905) and, last but not least, objects from the Purkersdorf Sanatorium. Furthermore, Belgium has a complete work by one of the leading figures of the Wiener Werkstätte, the Palais Stoclet in Brussells. It remains the main work by one of the leading figures of the movement, Josef Hoffmann, as well as the most remarkable collective creation of international art nouveau still in existence. Naturally, this artistic treasure of Brussels has a central position in the exhibition.
Illustration: Lady's desk, 1905, Design: Josef Hoffmann. Manufacture: Wiener Werkstätte. MAK - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / contemporary Art, Vienne. © MAK / Georg Mayer
International art nouveau
Very special attention is given to those who inspired the artists, such as Henri Van de Velde or Charles R. Mackintosh, who, together with Ashbee, were the vital actors in creating a link between the English artistic and crafts movement, that already existed at the time, and the Wiener Werkstätte, about to be born. Visitors will also discover the German Maschinemöbel and Deutsche Werkstätte chair, a project by Richard Riemerschid,
Austrian contemporary artist Heimo Zobernig has created an industrial scenography for the exhibition, with a spectacular entrance to the Horta Hall. This type of approach with contemporary artists participating in the mounting of exhibitions adds an enriching interaction between the historical and contemporary points of view.
PUBLICATION
Exhibition catalogue Edited by Peter Noever,Etienne Davignon, Paul Dujardin and Anne Mommens, with contributions by Valérie Dufour, Anette Freytag, Marc Hotermans, Siegried Mattl, Paulus Rainer and Eduard F Sekler . English, c450 p., ill. in colour and b/w..Supplement with texts translated into Dutch and French MAK / BOZAR / Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit : 39 €
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