The Architectural Gadfly of Vienna The Origins of Ornament and Crime As if to distance himself from the culture that celebrated and commissioned Otto Wagner, the renegade architect, Adolf Loos (1870-1933) posed for photographs as a common man, a man of the people, He...
The Great War The Great War is known to have inspired some of the most powerful and moving poetry—from both sides—ever written in reaction to combat and death. Literature which had been mired in nineteenth century conventions was liberated by innovative uses of...
THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE PROJECTS Overshadowed by the Bauhaus designs of the 1920s, the Wiener Werkstätte experiment at the turn of the century laid the groundwork for modern design. Tucked away in Eastern Europe, the city of Vienna was off the beaten path of the...
The Modern Workshop Like the Viennese Secession, the Wiener Werkstätte emerged as an independent body of artisans out of the prevailing concern among a young generation of artists about the stagnation of culture in Vienna. The Akademie de bildende Kunste, with...
A Modern Workshop Beyond Biedermeier, Part One The Wiener Werkstätte was an idea about modern design. That said, as modern as the concept of the Workshops was, its historical roots can be traced back to the early nineteenh century Biedermeier period, when, weary of...
Architect to the Emperor There is a portrait of Otto Wagner (1841-1918) by Gottlieb Kempf-hartenkampf, conventionally painted in 1896, showing the famous architect in formal dress with an Imperial medal around his neck, indicating that he had been recently appointed...
