THE ART REVIVAL IN AUSTRIA: VIENNESE WORK IN FINE, DECORATIVE AND APPLIED

ART
Author(s): MARTIN SHEPPARD
Source: Arts & Decoration (1910-1918) , MAY, 1911, Vol. 1, No. 7 (MAY, 1911), pp. 296-
298

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 Card room designed by Hans Ofner( showing interesting panel treatment in the furniture

THE ART REVIVAL IN AUSTRIA

VIENNESE WORK IN FINE, DECORATIVE AND APPLIED ART
By MARTIN SHEPPARD

formed the horizon of Viennese art was broken down.

Some young artists were elected as members of the jury
REVIVALS - ude-arearetheREVIVALS
theconcerning
strivings ude
strivings
after concerning
in arttruer
spring
andthe nobler
after existing the existing
from truer
ideals. order
order a and sense of noblerof
thingsthings ; they
of disquiet- ideals. ; they of the Kunstlerhaus, and soon there followed exhibitions
The efforts made to this end are sometimes encumbered of modern pictures, such as Segantini's Two Mothers ,
by false issues, but there is never lacking in them some
which of course aroused a storm of criticism. Finally the
element of right which will be recognized and supported
" young men" withdrew, to form their own society, the
by those who have a keen and real interest in the advance-
" Secession." From that time forward Viennese painting
ment of human culture. gravitated toward the " Secession" until the schism oc-
curred in 1905. It modernized the whole art of Vienna, ·
That there is much of genuine value in the present-day
Austrian revival is evident to all who take more than a so that even the Kunstlerhaus was compelled by force of
superficial interest in the subject. circumstances to fall into line. Fresh forces were moving
In matters of art Austria and, more particularly,
Vienna, always inclined to conservatism. The Academy
of Fine Arts was a solid fortress of the historical point of
view in art and of conventional taste. Its chief teachers
of painters were pupils of Rahl, the monumental painter
of the city extension, and its architects were those of the
historic style, and from this academy there arose the
leaders of the " Kunstlerhaus."

But many Austrian artists grew tired of this monoto-

nous conventionalism. There was no lack of genuine
forerunners of modern painting. Of recent years they
have been reverently disinterred and their works, dis-
played at special exhibitions, have aroused general aston-
ishment. Gradually the iron wall which hitherto had A villa in Bohemia designed by Jan Kotéra
(296)

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 May, 191 1 ARTS AND DECORATION 297

appearance it is in architecture that its first indications

are to be seen. It was in October, 1895, that " Modern
Architecture," by Otto Wagner, first appeared. This
book marked the appearance of the new spirit in Austrian
architecture. At first it was greeted with open hostility
and even scorn, but it has since run through many edi-
tions.

Wagner's great merit is that he instilled into Austrian

architecture a new life; it is through him that it has
ceased to have that petrified rigidity, that weary pedantic
character, it once had. "Art exists for mankind, not
mankind for art," he once wrote, and thus he regards
architecture as a living force, fulfilling individual needs
and aspirations and at the same time a monumental docu-
ment of social life.

It is in decorative art that Austria is perhaps most in

the vanguard. In this branch of artistic work two men
in particular, Professor Hoffmann and Professor Moser,
have created a new style, a style which is essentially Vien-
nese. Beside these two men there are hosts of other
workers in applied art who are true artists in every sense
of the word.

Professor Hoffman's great aim is to follow in the foot-

* Dante," by Alfonso Canciani. Austrian plastic work of extremely steps of Ruskin and William Morris. Utility is the first
individual type
consideration, but there is no reason why the simplest

in all directions, the rejected of former " juries" emerged

from obscurity into fame. Other groups of young artists
were formed and applied art followed in the path defined
by art pure and simple.
The leader of this new group, who was destined to
establish a style, is Gustav Klint, born in 1862. Klint
is the absolute, go-ahead, unmitigated artist, the very
reverse of an everybody's painter. He has no regard for
aught save his own artistic vision, and goes on his way,
silent and reserved. In the play of light and vibration of
color, as exemplified strongly in his Schubert, he allies
himself with the most modern tendencies. New aspira-
tions arise in form and in color, a new vision appears, the
latent hauntings of every-day fancifulness, the unwitting
dreamings of a world to all seeming so wide awake.
Although a leader Klint is but one of a new school.
Among the style-inclined painters of the Secession there
are several who strike an individual note - for example,
Adolf Böhm (born in 1861) in the ornamental Stylise
landscape, with a strong leaning in the direction of ap-
plied art; Alfred Roller (born in 1846), a reformer of the
established state of things at the Imperial Court Opera,
where the classical scenes owe their novel anti-realistic
form entirely to him; Rudolf Jettmar (born in 1869),
chiefly an etcher of fantastically heroic scenes ; Max
Leben wein (born in 1869), water colorisi, interpreter of
knightly legend and saga, and J. M. Auchentaller, whose
ornamental whirlings are influenced by modern English
examples.
What is true of Austrian painting is likewise true of
"Sunrise," by Rudolf Jettmar. From the series of original etchings,
architecture. In fact, whenever a new style makes its "The Twelve Hours of the Night"

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 298 ARTS AND DECORATION May, 1911

Bent-wood furniture designed by Crystal

Professor Josef
flower bowl and Hoffmann
stand made from a design by Otto Prutscher

articles of household effects should ods for carrying out their own de-
not be beautiful. The value does not signs in embroidery and what is
lie only in the material, but in the generally called fancy work. Many
right thought and treatment of the women are to the fore in the applied
material, and its power to convey that arts. Before the modern movement
thought to the minds of others. There they were chiefly interested in the old
is no superfluous ornamentation, nei- methods of colored embroidery in
ther is there too little. silks of flowers and other designs.
In all his work Professor Moser Now at the schools, according to the
shows a fine feeling for color; his new system, they learn all branches
artistic balance is well poised, both his of applied art and are opening up a
hand and his judgment are unerring. new field. The women students can

He has studied in workshops, in glass turn their hand to most things,

manufactories, in textile factories, and as can the men. Furniture building
he has done great work in the decora- and architecture do not come within
tion of interiors. their scope, but all household proper-
These two men have created a new ties do, and in these they meet with
style in decorative and applied art, a success.

style which is essentially Viennese; In short, everywhere in Austr

and, although they have learned much there is a desire to understand a
from other schools, theirs bears the there is movement, and that mean
unmistakable mark by which it will in much; anything is better than t
the future always be recognized as dead monotony of a few years a
Hoffman and Moser. The manufacturers need educatin
A new generation is rising at the as do the public, for Austria do
Imperial School of Embroidery, wherePortrait of a young lady, by Gustav Klint. By not in this respect differ from oth
permission of the Meithke Fine Arts Gallery,
the workers are searching new meth- Vienna countries.

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