Vienna: Disrupting Historicism with Modernism (1918-2018)
Above/featured: Modernism at Steinhof Church: building by Otto Wagner, angels by Othmar Schimkowitz, stained glass by Koloman Moser (HL).
Vienna is as much a present-day cultural capital city as she was for decades and centuries. Many will get a peek and taste of long-established aspects of the city by walking the streets of the Old Town for the atmosphere, chatting in cozy cafés with coffee and cake for the ambience, and swaying to the rhythms of the waltz under the spell of the (blue) Danube.
The early years of the 20th-century were troubled by greater calls for more autonomy from multiple ethnic groups within the patchwork of the Austro-Hungarian empire, by destruction and loss of life from The Great War (World War I), and by subsequent dissolution of the Empire. The capital city became an open theatre for socioeconomic and political changes across all class divisions within an environment where rebellion and revolution were the big talking points against the dogma of long-held traditions. Deep longing for the stability of the old and familiar mingled with equally enthusiastic desire for the radical of the new and mysterious.
Many in the arts, design, and cultural scene were questioning the excessive persistence of past styles, and were seeking something new to better represent changes happening all around them in Vienna. In 1897, a group of artists and architects resigned from the established Künstlerhaus to form the Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs (Union of Austrian Artists), known also as the Vienna Secession. Architecture moved towards a sharper focus to geometry and abstraction, and art flowed to the decorative with organic floral-like designs in the Jugendstil, Art Nouveau’s chapter in German-speaking lands. To promote their new ideas, the Secession group produced an official magazine called Ver Sacrum (“sacred spring” in Latin, 1898) and constructed the Secession building (1897) as an exhibition hall to display their work. The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) was created in 1903 as an association of artists whose thinking and applied arts creations were a precursor to the Bauhaus movement. Members of the Werkstätte worked with Vienna’s architects to broaden and unite the various concepts for a complete artwork, or Gesamtkunstwerk, as applied to a living space: the house, its rooms and furnishings, the interplay of light and space, and the tools and utensils for every day aspects of living.
Highlights
Some of the key figures and influencers of the city’s “new modernism” in the art, design, and architectural scene include:
- Josef HOFFMANN
- Gustav KLIMT
- Oscar KOKOSCHKA
- Max KURZWEIL
- Adolf LOOS
- Carl MOLL
- Koloman MOSER
- Joseph Maria OLBRICH
- Egon SCHIELE
- Othmar SCHIMKOWITZ
- Otto WAGNER
Some of their work from various locations in Vienna are highlighted below. From the list above, four died in 1918: Klimt on February 6, Wagner on April 11, Moser on October 18, and Schiele on October 31. In the centenary of their deaths, Vienna has marked all of 2018 as the year of Vienna Modernism (Wiener Moderne).
Josef Hoffmann
• Architect and designer, student of Otto Wagner; believed architecture and design could come together as modern art projects.
• Secession co-founder, 1897; 1 of 3 architects to join.
• Wiener Werkstätte1 co-founder, 1903.
• Departed Secession due to creative differences, 1905.
• Designed duplex for Koloman Moser and Carl Moll, 1901.
Gustav Klimt
• Secession co-founder, 1897; co-founder of Secession magazine Ver Sacrum with Max Kurzweil and Ludwig Hevesi.
• Departed Secession due to creative differences, 1905.
• Mentor to Egon Schiele.
• 1902 Beethoven Frieze: J. M. Olbrich’s Secession building, Vienna.
• 1908 painting “The Kiss”: Upper Belvedere, Vienna.
Oskar Kokoschka
• Expressionism, and with Egon Schiele, a leader in Vienna’s avant-garde scene.
• 1914 painting “The Bride of the Wind” (Die Windbraut, a.k.a. The Tempest): a story of lost love.
• With his art declared “degenerate” by Nazis in 1937, he fled to England and later to Switzerland.
Max Kurzweil
• Secession co-founder, 1897.
• Co-founder, Secession magazine Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring), with Gustav Klimt and Ludwig Hevesi. Published from 1898 to 1903, the magazine contents with a wide variety of original drawings, lithographs, copper engravings, and block prints set new standards in contemporary art, composition, illustration, and design.
Adolf Loos
• Believed art autonomous from architecture, that art be removed from the production of functional buildings and household items.
• Loos was impressed by Wagner’s genius, but Loos was also critical of ornate designs espoused by Wagner and Hoffmann.
• Loos stripped architecture of ornamentation to leave behind only a pure form of functionality, as he became convinced ornamentation was a trend of the times, and that a building’s aesthetic would subsequently erode with time. Loos’ followers would include Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, whose design of the 1926 Frankfurt kitchen led directly to the modern kitchen, and Bernard Rudofsky, whose time as curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art gave strong voice to design in North America.
Carl Moll
• Secession co-founder, 1897.
• Departed Secession due to creative differences, 1905.
• Reputation tarnished by his ardent support for National Socialism in the 1930s; his stepdaughter Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel escaped Austria after 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany.
Koloman Moser
• Secession co-founder, 1897.
• Wiener Werkstätte1: co-founder and artistic director, 1903.
• Jack-of-all-arts: graphic artist, painter, illustrator, designer (furniture, jewellery).
• Departed Secession due to creative differences, 1905.
Joseph Maria Olbrich
• Student of Otto Wagner, a product of “The Wagner School”.
• Secession co-founder, 1897; 1 of 3 architects to join.
• Chief architect of the Secession Building, 1897.
Egon Schiele
• Protégé of Gustav Klimt.
• Expressionism, self-portraits, nudes, sharp angles and distorted exaggerations.
• 1915 painting “Death and the Maiden”, at Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere.
Othmar Schimkowitz
• Hungarian-born artist and architectural sculptor.
• Joined Secession, 1898.
• Contributions to Vienna landmarks, including for example Austrian Post Savings Bank, Muse House, Secession, Steinhof Church.
Otto Wagner
• Wagner (Vienna), Charles Mackintosh (Glasgow), and Louis Sullivan (Chicago): forerunners to modern 20th-century architecture.
• Joined Secession 1897 (not as co-founder), departed from Secession 1905 due to creative differences.
• Extensive legacy in Vienna; e.g., Post Savings Bank, Steinhof Church, buildings on Linke Wienzeile, Municipal Railway.
• Wagner’s architectural legacy in Vienna
Burial Locations
Name | Lifespan | Role | City Cemetery Grave location+ |
---|---|---|---|
Joseph HOFFMANN |
1870 – 1956 | architect | Vienna AT Zentralfriedhof Gruppe 14C, Nummer 20 |
Gustav KLIMT |
1862 – 1918 | artist | Vienna AT Friedhof Hietzing Gruppe 5, Nummer 194–195 |
Oskar KOKOSCHKA |
1886 – 1980 | artist | Clarens (Montreux) CH Cimetière de Clarens-Montreux |
Max KURZWEIL |
1867 – 1916 | artist | Vienna AT Friedhof Hütteldorf Gruppe 1, Nummer G21 |
Adolf LOOS |
1870 – 1933 | architect | Vienna AT Zentralfriedhof Gruppe 0, Reihe 1, Nummer 105 |
Carl MOLL |
1861 – 1945 | artist | Vienna AT Friedhof Grinzing Gruppe MR1, Nummer 1 |
Koloman MOSER |
1868 – 1918 | artist | Vienna AT Friedhof Hietzing Gruppe 16, Nummer 14 |
Joseph Maria OLBRICH |
1867 – 1908 | architect | Darmstadt DE Alter Friedhof Abteilung IV, Gruppe C, Nummer 11 |
Egon SCHIELE |
1890 – 1918 | artist | Vienna AT Friedhof Ober St. Veit Gruppe B, Reihe 10, Nummer 15–16 |
Othmar SCHIMKOWITZ |
1864 – 1947 | artist | Graz AT St. Peter Stadtfriedhof |
Otto WAGNER |
1841 – 1918 | architect | Vienna AT Friedhof Hietzing Gruppe 13, Nummer 131 |
+ Abt G R N : Abteilung, Gruppe, Reihe, Nummer (section, group, row, number).
Key locations
Sources
• Fahr-Becker, G., Wiener Werkstätte 1903–1932 (Köln: Taschen, 1995).
• Kortz, P., Wien am Anfang des XX. Jahrhunderts, 1–2. Bände (Wien: Gerlach & Wiedling, 1905). Available from archive.org: volumes one and two [accessed Apr 2023].
• Néret, G., Gustav Klimt 1862–1918 (Köln: Taschen, 1993).
• Sarnitz, A., Adolf Loos 1870–1933: Architect, Cultural Critic, Dandy (Köln: Taschen, 2003).
• Sarnitz, A. (ed.), Architecture in Vienna (Wien: Springer-Verlag, 1998).
• Sarnitz, A., Josef Hoffmann 1870–1956: In the Realm of Beauty (Köln: Taschen, 2007).
• Sarnitz, A., Otto Wagner 1841–1918: Forerunner of Modern Architecture (Köln: Taschen, 2005).
• Steiner, R.A., Egon Schiele 1890–1918: The Midnight Soul of the Artist (Köln: Taschen, 1991).
1 Although the Wiener Werkstätte closed in 1932, the group’s key principles and influences found new homes in Germany’s Bauhaus, America’s Art Deco, and designers in Italy and Scandinavia after the Second World War. The largest collection of items produced by the Wiener Werkstätte is found in the archives of MAK Vienna.
I made all images above: on 5 Dec 2015 with a Canon EOS6D mark1; and with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime on 16, 18, 19, and 20 May 2018; and on 28 May 2022. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-c5m.
25 Responses to “Vienna: Disrupting Historicism with Modernism (1918-2018)”
Lovely Vienna. Have you ever seen the movie ” The kiss” the story about Gustav Klimt’s painting?
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Hi, Cornelia. No, I’ve not seen this! One film I would like to see is “Woman in Gold”, about Maria Altmann and Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. I should also find and read the book on which the movie is based. Thanks for reading and for your comment!
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Oh you know what, I think this is the title of the film I was talking about, I am not sure at this point, sorry for confusing you.
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No problem at all! 🙂
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I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I’ve only really been to Vienna while in transit (either to Budapest, or elsewhere in Austria). The city has always made a lovely stopping point to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and a pastry.
Vienna’s architecture looks incredible — it reminds me of a grander version of the Art Nouveau / Secession architecture in Subotica, Serbia: http://www.visitsubotica.rs/sites/default/files/secesija_u_subotici_i_segedinu_brosura_eng.pdf
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Hi, Tricia. When I lived and worked the 2 years in Heidelberg, I visited Vienna (for work) at least 4 times in that span, and I got to cover the 4 seasons doing so. I didn’t see a lot on those work visits, so this May’s trip to focus on the centenary of Vienna modernism was a nice way to tie in the rich historical and cultural aspects of the city to the things I wanted to see and learn. Although I left Vienna with plenty left to do (naturally), I got some education and enlightenment through the city’s architecture, museums, and the U4 subway line. The “compare and contrast” exercise with the other pair in the Habsburg trio (Prague and Budapest) seems like a natural exercise, as well as similar processes in other cities around central Europe. Thanks for your comment and for stopping by, and I hope I’ve convinced you both to return to Vienna to examine the city with a different eye.
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Henry, that’s great that your job took you to Vienna so many times, and with different seasonal backdrops. That’s one thing that I loved about living in Heidelberg — its central location made it a breeze to explore the rest of Europe.
On a side note, my first piano teacher was born in the outskirts of Prague in 1900, and left the city in 1938. She used to make regular trips to Vienna, from Prague, to attend the symphony. It would have been quite something to have seen the “Habsburg trio” back then.
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You’ve given me several more reasons to visit Vienna! Also some insight into Schiele and appreciation for his work. I love the aesthetic of the Wiener Werkstätte and would enjoy your architectural tour of Vienna Moderinism. I was already anxious to see the art at the Belvedere, now I also must visit Wien Museum Karlsplatz. Looks like a lot of wonderful art there. Thanks for the overview and the introduction to some artists I wasn’t familiar with!
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Hi, Cynthia. As I now know you’re a big fan of the aesthetic, please note the world’s largest collection of items produced by the Wiener Werkstätte is found in the archives of MAK (Museum für angewandte Kunst, or Museum of Applied Arts) in Vienna. Even though I spent an entire week in May 2018 wandering through many parts of Vienna, there was still a lot I wanted to accomplish but didn’t have enough time (or energy!) to do, including a visit to the Albertina, a deeper look at Otto Wagner’s Municipal Railway, and an examination of the history of Mozart and Beethoven in Vienna. But *when* you visit Vienna, you now have as part of your growing list: the MAK, the (Upper) Belvedere, and Wien Museum Karlsplatz 😉 Thanks again for your comment and for having a look at how I viewed Vienna Modernism!
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