Page 27 - Studio International - January 1971
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Macdonald Mackintosh. up with writing so much as brought to life IV
All these objects are described as loans from through a mysterious ornamental system The most noteworthy of Hoffmann's exhibi-
Waerndorfer, so that there can be little doubt which happens to consist of letters. The orna- tion designs for the Secession was that for the
that the Mackintoshes' stay in Vienna during mental value of the writing far outweighs its fourteenth exhibition, in 1902, in which Max
the 1900 Secession exhibition had been a pro- value as communication. Klinger's recently completed Beethoven monu-
ductive one. There were many direct contacts between ment was used as the centrepiece. All the
Naturally the exhibition led to conversations Hoffmann and Mackintosh; but it is worth works done for this exhibition by the Seces-
between Hoffmann and the Mackintoshes; concentrating here on one letter, written by sion artists, including the celebrated frieze by
and Hoffmann also soon went to Glasgow the Mackintoshes to the Secession, in German; Klimt, were in the service of this central idea.
himself. In December 1902 he accompanied as it may have been the circumstances sur- Here two-dimensional decorative art came
Myrbach on a study tour for the Culture rounding this letter that led to an estrange- closer than ever before to the world of decora-
Ministry, visiting art schools in Brussels, ment between Vienna and Glasgow. It seems tive craftsmanship; a mosaic-like handling of
London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dresden and that Myrbach, who was president of the surfaces, governed by the material used, now
Berlin. Hoffmann probably discussed the Secession from the eighteenth exhibition began to take on a dominant position.
formation of the Wiener Werkstätte with (1903) to the nineteenth (1904), had once In June 1903 Hoffman founded the Wiener
Mackintosh, and perhaps with Ashbee, during more asked the Mackintoshes to exhibit. His Werkstatte, on the model of Ashbee's Guild
this trip. In March 1903, Mackintosh wrote invitation was answered, as the apologies at of Handicraft; he had also, as we have seen,
out a series of suggestions concerning the the beginning of the letter indicate, only after taken the advice of Mackintosh. His partners
foundation of such an institution. a long delay. The Mackintoshes write that in the undertaking were Koloman Moser and
How close, and yet in some ways how far apart, they will be pleased to exhibit, and ask for Waerndorfer; the aim was to give artistic
Hoffmann's and Mackintosh's positions were more details. Myrbach, to whom the letter form to objects of use of every kind. The work-
at this time can be demonstrated through two was addressed, had been in the United shop at first executed only designs by Hoff-
comparisons. Mackintosh's stand at the Glas- States since 4 April 1905, working on the pre- mann and Moser; later other artists were
gow Exhibition of 1901 and the saleroom of parations for the St Louis World Exhibition; brought in. Curiously, Hoffmann's very first
the Wiener Werkstätte by Hoffmann (1904) there he was taken ill, and he did not return furniture and vase designs include some extra-
show a similar reliance on a grid pattern (in to Vienna until January 1905. On his return, ordinarily clear and almost cubist forms which
Hoffmann's case this is largely because he did he came in for criticism as a result of the dis- have no parallel before the Dessau phase of
all his drawing on squared paper). Two honest actions of a Kunstgewerbeschule em- the Bauhaus. The Wiener Werkstätte was the
examples of lettering, on the other hand, ployee, although he had been away at the very last flowering of the craftsman as artist.
demonstrate the wide differences that separ- time of the events, and he then asked to be The working drawing is often no more than
ate the two artists. Hoffmann's trade-mark relieved of his post as director. On April 6 and an idea, which is transformed into a finished
for the Wiener Werkstatte (1903) is built up 7 he auctioned off his entire output at the prototype by craftsmen who work intuitively.
on a grid, and the letters are harnessed into a Dorotheum, and on April 20 he retired on Just after its foundation, the Wiener Werk-
framework. Mackintosh's sample of lettering, pension and moved to Paris. Mackintosh's stätte was commissioned to build the sana-
which he did for Rudolf von Larisch's book letter was probably not opened until early in torium at Purkersdorf (1903-5), one of the
Beispiele künstlerischer Schrift (Vienna 1902), is 1905, by which time the breach between the primary buildings of twentieth-century archi-
also based on a square framework, but there Engelhart group and the Klimt group was tecture. The use of a façade added for show
is in it no attempt to reach equilibrium be- already in existence; this was to lead in June was abandoned, and the system of construc-
tween the surface covered by letters and the of that year to the withdrawal of the Klimt tion was made visible. The system of skele-
spaces between them. The surface is not filled group from the Secession. ton construction with reinforced concrete,