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Josef Hoffmann 1870 - 1956 Austrian born Josef Hoffmann not only completed his architectural degree under Otto Wagner, the famous head of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, but started his practical career by joining Wagner’s studio. He opened his own office in 1898, and became extremely interested in the linear dimension of the Glasgow School and the Mackintosh influences. Together with Gustav Klimt and their revolutionary art nouveaux contemporaries, they founded the 'Vienna Secession', an organization intent on promoting the developing Art Nouveau genre of the period. Constantly pushing for a renaissance of abstract arts forms and architectural purity, he founded the Wiener Werkstatte together with his two architect associates Kolman Moser and Joseph Maria Olbrich. The idea of offering a total overall art and design service which might cover an entire building and its surroundings, was still in its infancy, but the concept came to fruition in the combined attainment of a contract for Hoffman, Klimt and the Wiener Werkstatte members to create a home for the Belgian industrialist Adolphe Stoclet, which became known as the 'Palais Stoclet' in Brussels. Here they were to provide not only the architectural design of the building and the layout of the stylized gardens, but the complete interior design - wall coverings, marble work, down to the furniture, silver ornaments and tableware that Hoffman would create. |
Modern Furniture Designers
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