Wiener Werkstätte : Avantgarde, Art Déco, Industrial Design

Neuwirth, Waltraud

Bibliographische Daten

Monographie

Persistenter Identifier:: AC00674722

Titel:: Wiener Werkstätte : Avantgarde, Art Déco, Industrial Design

Signatur:: Kunstgeschichte Neuzeit I 402

Erscheinungsort:: Wien

Herausgeber:: Selbstverlag Dr. Waltraud Neuwirth

Dokumenttyp:: Monographie

Bestand:: MAK-Hauskataloge

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1984

Ausgabenbezeichnung:: [Electronic ed.]

Sprache:: Deutsch, Englisch

Kapitel

Titel:: Introduction

Dokumenttyp:: Monographie

Strukturtyp:: Kapitel

Kapitel

Titel:: Factory production - Industrial design

Dokumenttyp:: Monographie

Strukturtyp:: Kapitel

INTRODUCTION When the Wiener Werkstätte was founded in 1903, this marked not the beginning, but the culmination of a development which probably started when Hoffmann and Moser joined the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. Unfortunately there is too little documentation of the years 1899 to 1903 to do credit to the achievements of this period. Luckily numerous primary sources relating to the Wiener Werkstätte have been preserv- ed, and have been incorporated in the present catalogue. These include Sketches and Studio drawings in the library of the Austrian Museum of Applied Art and the records of the Wiener Werkstätte (calculation books and photograph albums, original photographs, etc.) also in the possession of the museum. An interpretation of these sources is made very difficult by the fact that the records are by no means complete. Valuable correspon- dence (particularly from the early days) is missing entirely and much of the information the records contain is contradictory. As a result, it is necessary to evaluate these records, and sound conclusions can only be drawn extremely conscientiously. The most important questions that arise are the attribution of works to certain artists and dating Problems. To these must be added the problem of articles produced outside the Wiener Werkstätte and the number of copies produced. Serial numbers were sometimes changed, and the System used for calculation is by no means uniform: calculation books were kept until ab out 1919 (though many are missing), and from 1922 onwards filing cards were used, many of which have been lost. The gap at the beginning of the twenties represents a critical defi- ciency in the documentation. The number of copies specified must always be regarded as minimum a quantity only, as the records are not necessarily complete, and because the same model can subsequently be recontinued under another serial number. Great care must be exercised in attributing works to specific artists, as the designer of the form is not necessarily identical with the originator of the ornamentation. Over the course of time, slight formal variations were made to some table Services, which - with different serial numbers - then form a chain of development, the individual links of which are sometimes very difficult to distinguish from one another. This can considerably complicate the identification of some articles. FACTORY PRODUCTION - INDUSTRIAL DESIGN Under the conditions of the trade law in force at the time, articles produced by the individ ual workshops of the Wiener Werkstätte were classified as handicrafts, which cor- responded with the intentions of the Wiener Werkstätte. The trade regulations were ap- parently too cumbersome for the Wiener Werkstätte, with the result that in 1914 the handicrafts trades were reclassified as factories. In point of fact, as long as it existed the Wiener Werkstätte - albeit with certain changes of emphasis - always practised both forms of trade (apart from the free-lance trades), and from a very early date there is evi- dence of industrial production alongside handcrafting. In order to cover this wide ränge of production, the Wiener Werkstätte made use of all the opportunities offered by the handicrafts and industrial structures of the time. Apart from its own production, the Wiener Werkstätte frequently assumed the role of a licenser, commissioning its own de- signs to be executed in other workshops. Often it passed its designs on to other licensers who then saw to their realisation. The Wiener Werkstätte resorted to homework particular ly in the field of textiles. It also acted as a dealer, buying and selling the finished products (e.g., ceramics from Vienna’s Kunstgewerbeschule, the “Wiener Keramik”, Eduard Klablena, etc., Kaulitz dolls, etc.). The Wiener Werkstätte frequently used semi-finished products (e.g., prefabricated metal «f 13

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