Austrian workshops
Österreichische Werkstätten is a trade mark for arts and crafts with two shops on Kärntner Strasse in Vienna . The company goes back to the founding of the Austrian designer and architect Josef Hoffmann in 1948.
The Austrian workshops have several predecessor organizations. The two most important of these are the Wiener Werkstätte and the Werkbund .
Historical development
Historical development until 1933
In 1903 Josef Hoffmann founded the Wiener Werkstätte together with his artist colleague Koloman Moser and the industrialist Fritz Wärndorfer . The aim of the Wiener Werkstätte was to produce handcrafted everyday items such as furniture, jewelry, fabrics, clothing, table accessories, glass and silverware and to sell them through their own shops. “We want to establish intimate contact between the public, designers and craftsmen and create good, simple household appliances,” says the Wiener Werkstätte's work program.
The products of the Wiener Werkstätte enjoyed great popularity among the wealthy Viennese bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, the company got into economic difficulties several times. High production costs, small numbers and a limited market repeatedly brought the Wiener Werkstätte to the brink of bankruptcy. This was the case for the first time in 1914 after Fritz Wärndorfer left, who had exhausted himself financially. The reorganization took place on March 24th with the entry in the commercial register as "Betriebsgesellschaft mbH der Wiener Werkstätte productive cooperative for objects of the arts and crafts". The First World War and the subsequent collapse of Austria-Hungary meant a massive turning point for the Wiener Werkstätte. It had lost the important clientele of the industrial and banking bourgeoisie. Even the attempt to expand into new countries by opening branches in New York, Zurich and Berlin did not bring the desired success. Mainly because there was no affluent base in Vienna. Mäda (Eugenia) Primavesi , the widow of the patron and temporary managing director Otto Primavesi, put it this way in 1929: “The sparrows whistle on the roofs: The Viennese arts and crafts have conquered the entire cultural world - except Vienna. Here it still has to struggle with incomprehension, lack of interest and narrow-minded opposition. ”The textile industrialist Kuno Grohmann made the last attempt to save himself, but he too withdrew in 1930 without having achieved any lasting improvement. In 1931 Josef Hoffmann left the Wiener Werkstätte and “in September 1932 the last remaining pieces came under the hammer at the Glückselig auction house. The Wiener Werkstätte was history. "
In 1907 the German Werkbund was founded in Munich. The German Werkbund also had the goal of creating useful things in perfect craftsmanship and at the same time having an educational effect. His founding program says, among other things: “It will also be necessary to have an educational and instructive effect in the large audience of buyers and customers in order to bring the good work to more and more recognition.” And further: “It is therefore on it to ensure that commercial exhibitions only present objects that are exemplary in every respect, in technical, artistic and economic terms. ”Josef Hoffmann was on the founding committee.
On the occasion of the 5th annual conference of the Deutscher Werkbund from 6. – 9. In June 1912 in Vienna the founding of an Austrian Werkbund was decided. Its first general assembly took place on April 30, 1913. Among the 178 founding members were well-known artists such as Josef Frank , Josef Hoffmann , Gustav Klimt , Kolo Moser , Otto Prutscher and companies whose representatives again played an important role 35 years later in the founding of the Österreichische Werkstätten, J. & L. Lobmeyr and Joh. Backhausen . The first major test of the Austrian Werkbund was the big Werkbundschau in Cologne in 1914. The Austrian pavilion impressed both the public and the critics. Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps wrote: “If the task of an exhibition building is to act like a call, and to claw into the consciousness of the flooding crowd with the inextinguishable features of a peculiarity, then it is not only as a total work of art, but also in In this sense, to call the house built by government councilor Professor Josef Hoffmann as a functional building. ”This first climax was followed immediately by a serious turning point. The First World War largely brought artistic activity and the promotion of art to a standstill. In the 1920s, there was a temporary split in the Austrian Werkbund due to differences of opinion about the acceptance of industrial production of handicraft products. The reunification in 1928 was short-lived. In 1933/34 Josef Hoffmann and Clemens Holzmeister founded the "New Austrian Werkbund". When the Nazi regime came to power in Austria, all existing artist associations were dissolved. Only the Viennese arts and crafts association was admitted .
Historical development from 1934 to 1945
During the war, artists from the Vienna Arts and Crafts Association were obliged to make accessories for the armaments industry in home work. After a bomb hit in Josef Hoffmann's house, students from the School of Applied Arts collected the drawings from the bomb rubble. At the first exhibition after the war, the glass on the windows in the shop on Kärntner Straße was still missing. Therefore, viewing slits were cut into the boards with which the bar was boarded up for passers-by.
Historical development from 1946
What the artisans lacked was not only the materials, but also a functioning organization for the presentation and marketing of their products. In 1948, the Austrian Workshops emerged as the successor to the Werkbund and Kunsthandwerkverein, a kind of rebirth of the Wiener Werkstätte. The founders, Josef Hoffmann, Oswald Haerdtl, John Backhausen jun., Hans Harald Rath, Carl Auböck and Karl Hagenauer took up the postulate of the Wiener Werkstätte to bring beauty into people's everyday lives with functional shapes, good materials and solid craftsmanship.
The offer
The Austrian workshops were based on the spirit of Viennese modernism . The workshops want to convey a special attitude towards life with their products. The store of the Österreichische Werkstätten at Kärntner Straße 6 was completely redesigned in 1999/2000 according to a design by the Viennese architect Helmut Heistinger .
The business and brand Österreichische Werkstätten was taken over in 2012 by the List Group , which operates the main business and a branch on Wiener Kärntner Straße and thus continues the tradition of the Wiener Werkbund and Wiener Werkstätte at this location. The focus of the offer is on handicrafts from Austrian companies and Austrian designs. The Austrian workshops offer unchanged pieces from the time of the Wiener Werkstätte in addition to a wide range of contemporary accessories that are designed and manufactured in the spirit of the founders.
The design language of the present differs from that of the founding generation. Many objects appear even more sober, even more reduced than at the time of Josef Hoffmann or the Arts and Crafts movement, although some of the original forms, whether their timelessness, remain unchanged or with only minor modifications. The basic claim to carry artistic design into all areas of life has been preserved. A maximum of functionality should be combined with high aesthetic demands.
Every year there are changing exhibitions in the premises of the Austrian Workshops, the focus of which is on Josef Hoffmann, the Wiener Werkstätte and Vienna around 1900. At the same time, the link to the present is drawn in these exhibitions. Contemporary artists with current works were also included in the exhibitions several times.
Exhibitions
Since 2006, the Austrian workshops have held regular exhibitions.
- 2006 Gustav Klimt and his time
- 2007 Homage to Gustav Klimt,
- 2008 The Golden Century of Art,
- 2009 Gustav Klimt and Viennese Art Nouveau,
- 2010 Gustav Klimt and Vienna 1910,
- 2011 Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession (with the intervention "zeit.kunst. Freiheit"),
- 2012 Gustav Klimt. Inspirations-Reproductions-Antiques,
- 2013 Viennese 20th Century. From Hoffmann to Hundertwasser. (with intervention "Werkbund Melange")
Web links
Homepage, https://www.austrianarts.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Barbara Schröter: Material for a thousand and one years: The textile collection of the general building inspector for the capital. Google Boks (online) , p. 296, ISBN 9789772253005