|
|
 |
|
| Antiques & Collectibles |
Viennese Revival
Dana Micucci
04/01/2004
|
Everyday
Inspirations
Inspired by the late 19th century British Arts and Crafts
Movement, which advocated handcrafted furnishings in the home, and by Scottish
architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s spare, geometric furniture designs, the
Wiener Werkstätte produced a variety of everyday objects that, in addition to
metalwork, furniture, glassware and graphic design, included ceramics, textiles,
fashion and bookbinding. The colony of workshops, whose designers were skilled
in a variety of media, aimed to beautify daily life, bridge the gap between the
fine and applied arts, and integrate all design elements into a Gesamtkunstwerk
(total artwork).
 | | WIENER WERKSTÄTTE caviar bowl. |
“We wish to establish intimate contact between
public, designer and craftsman, and to produce good, simple domestic
requisites…. Usefulness is our first requirement, and our strength has to lie in
good proportions and materials well handled,” Hoffmann and Moser wrote in the
Wiener Werkstätte manifesto. “The work of the art craftsman is to be measured by
the same yardstick as that of the painter and the sculptor.”
Moving
away from the ornate Art Nouveau style, early Wiener Werkstätte designs favored
architectural forms with clean lines and understated shapes, and they applied
decoration that often incorporated square motifs. Black, white and gray were the
predominant colors.
Collectors prefer works that have an austere
look, created during the early years of the Wiener Werkstätte, says Jane Kallir,
author of Viennese Design and the Wiener Werkstätte. By 1906, the workshop’s
designs began to take on a more florid style expressed in sumptuous surface
ornamentation, sinuous shapes, bold colors and playful figuration that reached a
peak after World War I.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
