Josef Hoffmann - Oswald Oberhuber
dal 11/6/2011 al 29/10/2011
Segnalato da
11/6/2011
Josef Hoffmann - Oswald Oberhuber
MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Wien
Total Design and Drafts. Both Hoffmann's oeuvre and Oberhuber's work as an architect, designer, teacher and exhibition designer bear witness to the transformation of each artist's role within modernism: from an avant-garde figure to an upholder of tradition. The exhibition consciously draws a spatial distinction between the works of these two important artists. For a further dialog arises between the furniture objects by Oberhuber and the architecture of the Hoffmann Museum.
Curator Rainald Franz, MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
The exhibition “Josef Hoffmann – Oswald Oberhuber. Total Design and
Drafts,” to be shown at the Josef Hoffmann Museum in Brtnice, Czech
Republic, will juxtapose works by Oswald Oberhuber with the drawings of
Josef Hoffmann. This concept was chosen in celebration of Oberhuber’s 80th
birthday.
As a painter, graphic artist, sculptor, object artist, conceptual artist, author,
designer, stage designer and architect, the unbelievably active Oswald
Oberhuber has brought to bear an improbable breadth of expressive means in
creating his extremely complex and multifaceted body of works. As an
instructor at (and later rector of) what is now the University of Applied Arts, he
influenced the training of generations of students.
Both Josef Hoffmann’s oeuvre and Oberhuber’s work as an architect, designer,
teacher and exhibition designer bear witness to the transformation of each
artist’s role within modernism: from an avant-garde figure to an upholder of
tradition.
The presentation concept for the exhibition “Josef Hoffmann – Oswald
Oberhuber: Total Design and Drafts” consciously draws a spatial distinction
between the oeuvres of these two important artists by providing the work of
each with both their own rooms and their own areas. This leaves to the
observer the task of studying each artist’s drawing style, and of discovering
differences and commonalities. A further dialog arises between the furniture
objects by Oswald Oberhuber (integrated into the exhibition) and the
architecture of the Josef Hoffmann Museum itself plus the furniture and
objects made according to Hoffmann’s designs, which are displayed in the
permanent exhibition “Josef Hoffmann. Inspirations.”
Oberhuber has long devoted a great deal of attention to the oeuvre of Josef
Hoffmann. It was this interest which, among other things, led him to join forces
with the MAK to realize the exhibition “Josef Hoffmann. Ornament Between
Hope and Crime” (1987), which was Vienna’s first public presentation of
sketches and objects by Hoffmann from the MAK Collection together with
those from today’s University of Applied Arts.
As an artist, gallerist, professor and rector of the University of Applied Arts in
Vienna, Oswald Oberhuber has played a highly influential role in the post-
1950 Austrian art world. He views art as a life process, and under no
circumstances has he ever desired to ascribe to any sort of exclusivity. He has
thus consistently remained true to the theory which he has been espousing
since 1958, a theory via which he calls for an end to all styles, the only
permissible style being one of permanent change, as a personal program of
life and art. “That is my principle; one might say that my style consists in the
negation of any particular style.” In this refusal to adhere to a consistent style,
Oberhuber's position on art converges with that of Hoffmann.
Hoffmann’s form-conscious individualism characterized his entire creative
output. His practice of design, covering over sixty years of sketches, is marked
both by continuity and by breaks. Hoffmann’s drawing style is influenced by an
ambivalent stance somewhere between artistry and functional design,
governed by the “cult of the creative hand.” Both his training at Vienna’s
Academy of Fine Arts under Carl von Hasenauer and, above all, Otto Wagner,
as well as his trust in the knowledge of the involved craftsmen and
construction specialists, is reflected in his sketches. Of his designs, Hoffmann
himself said: “One shouldn’t impose any limits on intuition. I always have to
close my eyes and imagine a thing before I begin work on it.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a brochure with texts and quotations
about and by Oswald Oberhuber and Josef Hoffmann.
To realize the exhibition “Josef Hoffmann – Oswald Oberhuber: Total Design
and Drafts” at the Josef Hoffmann Museum in Brtnice, Czech Republic, as well
as for exhibition and tourism projects in the Centrope region planned for the
next two years, the MAK has applied together with the Moravian Gallery in
Brno for financial support from the subsidy program of the European Union
“European Territorial Cooperation Between Austria and the Czech Republic,
2007-2013.”
As part of “MAK on TOUR”, a bus trip to the opening of the exhibition “Josef
Hoffmann – Oswald Oberhuber: Total Design and Drafts” will take place on
12 June 2011. A second such “MAK on TOUR” event is planned for
21 September 2011. Information at Tel.: (+43-1) 711 36-231,
MAK.at/MAKonTOUR or by E-mail at marketing@MAK.at.
On the permanent exhibition “Josef Hoffmann: Inspirations”
Josef Hoffmann, one of the most important architects and designers of the 20th
century, is the theme of the permanent exhibition “Josef Hoffmann:
Inspirations” at the museum in Josef Hoffmann’s birth house in Brtnice. On
display are objects made after designs by Hoffmann from the MAK Collection
and from Czech collections. The exhibition attempts to trace the artistic
inspirations and impressions which Hoffmann gleaned from his hometown and
via his active interest in folk objects from Moravia. The MAK is home to the
world’s most important collection of works by Hoffmann, most of which came
into the museum’s possession via the legacy of the Wiener Werkstätte. With
his work, Josef Hoffmann had a decisive impact on the development of 20thcentury architecture and design in Europe. The trained architect had studied
under Carl Hasenauer and Otto Wagner at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts,
and he became a founding member of the “Vereinigung bildender Künstler
Österreichs Secession” (the Vienna Secession) in 1897. He went on to found
the Wiener Werkstätte [Vienna Workshops] together with the painter and
designer Koloman Moser and the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer; this
organization (which existed from 1903 to 1932) was modeled after the ideals
of the Arts and Crafts Movement. Hoffmann created designs for furniture,
glass, porcelain, metal objects, jewelry and textiles. In 1907, the architect and
designer Hoffmann—already well-known—remodeled the baroque house of
his parents (which today houses the Josef Hoffmann Museum) according to
Viennese modernist ideas.
The conception and realization process of the exhibition “Josef Hoffmann:
Inspirations” has been supported financially by the program of the European
Union “Culture 2007–2013” as part of the project “Architecture and Interior
Design in Central Europe in the Early 20th Century. Josef Hoffmann and
Dušan Jurkovič.” This project is being carried out by the Moravian Gallery in
Brno, the MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in
Vienna, and the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava, as well as ICOM-ICDAD.
Since 2006, the house in Brtnice, Czech Republic, where the artist was born
has been run jointly as a museum by the MAK in Vienna and the Moravian
Gallery in Brno. As early as 1992, the MAK was present in Brtnice with the
exhibition “The Baroque Hoffmann,” which examined the roots of his work as
an architect and designer. There followed “Josef Hoffmann: A Continuous
Process” (2005), “Josef Hoffmann – Carlo Scarpa: On the Sublime in
Architecture” (2006), “Josef Hoffmann – Adolf Loos: Ornament and Tradition”
(2007), “Josef Hoffmann – Donald Judd: Hypothesis” (2008), the permanent
exhibition “Josef Hoffmann: Inspirations” (2009), and most recently “Rewriting
the Space: Dorit Margreiter / Josef Hoffmann” (2010).
Josef Hoffmann. Architecture Guide
The book “Josef Hoffmann. Architecture Guide,” published in 2010, is the first
presentation of all European buildings designed by Josef Hoffman in a single
volume. This publication was prepared in cooperation with the Moravian
Gallery in Brno.
An essay by Jan Tabor and further contributions by Rainald Franz, Martina
Lehmannová and Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel discuss Hoffmann's relevance and
importance. Using 39 selected examples, this publication describes extant and
(to varying extents) accessible buildings and interiors by Josef Hoffmann.
These are discussed in brief descriptions and illustrated with archival and
present-day photographs. The “Architecture Guide” also contains a
comprehensive biography covering Hoffmann’s life and works. The
introductory texts are by Peter Noever and Marek Pokorný.
MAK Press Office
Judith Anna Schwarz-Jungmann (Head)
Olivia Harrer
Sandra Hell-Ghignone
Christiane Vogl
Tel. (+43-1) 711 36-229 Fax (+43-1) 711 36-227 presse@MAK.at
Opening Sunday, 12 June 2011, 2 p.m.
in the presence of Oswald Oberhuber
Exhibition Venue:
Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice*
náměstí Svobody 263, 58832 Brtnice, CZ phone: +420 567 216 128
e-mail: brtnice@moravska-galerie.cz
* A joint branch of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK in Vienna
MAK
Weiskirchnerstraße 3, 1010 Vienna
Opening Hours
April–October from Tues to Sun, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
July and August daily, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.