Women Artists of the Wiener Werkstätte
MAK – Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT
05.05. – 03.10.2021

Women Artists of the Wiener Werkstätte<br>MAK – Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, AT<br>05.05. – 03.10.2021

Charlotte Billwiller, Mathilde Flögl, Susi Singer, Marianne Leisching and Maria Likarz, Photograph, 1924, © MAK

Who influenced the style of the Wiener Werkstätte (WW) from the moment it was founded in 1903? Names that immediately come to mind are those of the great male artists Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and Dagobert Peche. Yet, from the outset, women artists were also involved in the WW’s creations. Their number grew constantly until the company’s liquidation in 1932, and especially in the interwar years Mathilde Flögl, Maria Likarz, Felice Rix, or Vally Wieselthier defined the look of the WW with fantastic fabric patterns and expressive ceramics. In the course of our research, about 180 female artists were identified and approximately half of these are represented in this exhibition.

Educated at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and employed at the WW by Hoffmann, the women designed fabrics, fashion, home accessories, toys, and commercial art and, in addition, also took over the field of ceramics where they were able to work purely artistically. Furthermore, they also developed exceptional murals for interiors—be it flats, restaurants, or exhibition spaces. Although highly recognized at their time, the women artists were mostly forgotten after the end of the WW. The catalog and exhibition want to give them a face and raise awareness for an oeuvre that was involved in constituting the unique position of the Wiener Werkstätte between Art Nouveau and Bauhaus.

Curator: Anne-Katrin Rossberg, Curator, MAK Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive
Guest Curator: Elisabeth Schmuttermeier
Exhibition Design: Claudia Cavallar

Audio Tour through the exhibition: soundcloud.com/makwien

The exhibition is accompanied by the publication WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, edited by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Anne-Katrin Rossberg, and Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, with contributions by Megan Brandow-Faller, Elisabeth Kreuzhuber, Anne-Katrin Rossberg, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Lara Steinhäußer, and Angela Völker. German/English, 288 pages with numerous color illustrations. MAK, Vienna/Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2020. Available at the MAK Design Shop and online at MAKdesignshop.at for € 44.95.

More information:
https://www.mak.at/womenartistsoftheww

Tote bag of the Wiener Werkstätte using the pattern “Curzola” by Mathilde Flögl, 1924/25, © MAK

Sample board with the WW pattern “Grasmücke” [Warbler] by Lotte Fochler, 1910/11, © MAK/Nathan Murrell

Klara Posnanski, WW fabric pattern Dornbach, 1928, © MAK/Kristina Wissik

Finarten Matto, Harmaasävyinen, Photo: Aleksi Tikkala. © The Craft Museum of Finland

Marie Weißenberg, Endpaper of the Wiener Werkstätte, 1921, © MAK

Felice Rix, WW fabric pattern Gespinst [Web], 1924, © MAK

MAK Exhibition View, 2021, WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, MAK Exhibition Hall, © MAK/Georg Mayer

MAK Exhibition View, 2021, WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, MAK Exhibition Hall, © MAK/Georg Mayer

MAK Exhibition View, 2021, WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, MAK Exhibition Hall, © MAK/Georg Mayer

MAK Exhibition View, 2021, WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE, MAK Exhibition Hall, © MAK/Georg Mayer

 

MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
Stubenring 5
AT - 1010 Vienna
https://www.mak.at

 

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