DOI Heft:
No. 94 (December, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Levetus, A. S.: An Austrian decorative artist: Koloman Moser
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26963#0154
Koloman Moser
such as a writing-desk, a
chair back, a table, or a
side-board.
The desire for the really
artistic has been greatly
stimulated in Vienna by
Koloman Moser and a few
other young and ardent
art-lovers who were not
afraid of expressing their
love outwardly, men who
could and did choose
for themselves, and were
not afraid to throw off the
fetters of tradition. But
now tradition in art is
dead, or nearly so. Gone
are the ornaments, atro-
cious in form and colour,
with which the shop-
windows used to be filled ;
gone too are the hereditary
patterns of the rococo
times, for as Kolo Moser
DETAIL OF INTARSIA
FOR SIDEBOARD
BY KOLOMAN MOSER
SIDEBOARD: “THE DRAUGHT OF FISHES” DESIGNED BY KOLOMAN MOSER
EXECUTED BY PORTOIS AND FIX
says : “ We are now
living in the times
of automobiles, elec-
tric cars, bicycles,
and railways ; what
was good style in
stage-coach days is
not so now, what
may have been
practical then is not
so now, and as the
times are, so must
art be.” And this
is echoing what
Herr Hevesi, the
art critic, wrote for
the inscription on
the “Secession”
building :
“ Der Zeit Ihre Kunst,
DerKunst Ihre Zeit.”
(To Time its Art,
To Art its Time.)
There is no reason why one should not be both
artistic and modern; it is only extravagance in one
or the other direction which produces bad art, or
better still sterilises it. Professor Moser is in no
ways a sinner. His artistic balance is well poised,
both his hand and his judgment are unerring.
There are those who accuse him of having been
too much influenced by"English styles; others say
that old English furniture is Japanese: forgetting
that creative art is peculiar to no one nation, and
that the fundamental basis is common to all.
Professor Moser is a true artist and knows how
much nations owe to one another in art as in all
things; and his innate feeling for real beauty of
form, design, and colour has instinctively led him
to pick out what is good in all things, with the
result that something entirely new has been evolved
by him, an art which is peculiarly his own, and
makes his work at once recognisable.
There is hardly a branch of applied art to which
Koloman Moser has not turned his hand. Fertile
in his designs he possesses an exuberance of rich
such as a writing-desk, a
chair back, a table, or a
side-board.
The desire for the really
artistic has been greatly
stimulated in Vienna by
Koloman Moser and a few
other young and ardent
art-lovers who were not
afraid of expressing their
love outwardly, men who
could and did choose
for themselves, and were
not afraid to throw off the
fetters of tradition. But
now tradition in art is
dead, or nearly so. Gone
are the ornaments, atro-
cious in form and colour,
with which the shop-
windows used to be filled ;
gone too are the hereditary
patterns of the rococo
times, for as Kolo Moser
DETAIL OF INTARSIA
FOR SIDEBOARD
BY KOLOMAN MOSER
SIDEBOARD: “THE DRAUGHT OF FISHES” DESIGNED BY KOLOMAN MOSER
EXECUTED BY PORTOIS AND FIX
says : “ We are now
living in the times
of automobiles, elec-
tric cars, bicycles,
and railways ; what
was good style in
stage-coach days is
not so now, what
may have been
practical then is not
so now, and as the
times are, so must
art be.” And this
is echoing what
Herr Hevesi, the
art critic, wrote for
the inscription on
the “Secession”
building :
“ Der Zeit Ihre Kunst,
DerKunst Ihre Zeit.”
(To Time its Art,
To Art its Time.)
There is no reason why one should not be both
artistic and modern; it is only extravagance in one
or the other direction which produces bad art, or
better still sterilises it. Professor Moser is in no
ways a sinner. His artistic balance is well poised,
both his hand and his judgment are unerring.
There are those who accuse him of having been
too much influenced by"English styles; others say
that old English furniture is Japanese: forgetting
that creative art is peculiar to no one nation, and
that the fundamental basis is common to all.
Professor Moser is a true artist and knows how
much nations owe to one another in art as in all
things; and his innate feeling for real beauty of
form, design, and colour has instinctively led him
to pick out what is good in all things, with the
result that something entirely new has been evolved
by him, an art which is peculiarly his own, and
makes his work at once recognisable.
There is hardly a branch of applied art to which
Koloman Moser has not turned his hand. Fertile
in his designs he possesses an exuberance of rich