International studio (35.1908)

Art School Notes


DESIGN FOR PRINTED FABRIC
(Kunstgewerbe-Schule, Vienna)

cessful work in the higher classes. “Everything
from Nature,” is the watchword here; plants and
animals do duty as models for the students, who are
encouraged to study their habits and characteristics.
As a matter of course the
first efforts of most of them
are crudely naturalistic, but
by degrees, as they ac-
quire greater freedom of
draughtsmanship and
greater power of observa-
tion, this purely imitative
quality is superseded by a
quality which is expressed
by the word “ Stylisie-
rung ”—a word which, I
believe, has no exact equi-
valent in English, and is
not quite the same as the
French word stylisation.
Its meaning, however, is
sufficiently exemplified by
the accompanying illustra-
tions, in which various
plant and animal forms
furnish the motifs for
textile and other designs.

This “ Stylisierung,” or
decorative adaptation of
by f. lebisch natural forms to design,
offers little difficulty to
students who come to the
Imperial Arts and Crafts School from the Crown
Lands—as, in fact, many of them do—for with
the inhabitants of these parts of the Empire this
kind of design is, as it were, inborn. How much

the maple, and others
common in this part; while
of the animal forms the
squirrel makes a frequent
appearance, and the parrot
and turkey, with their
richly-coloured plumage,
are all great favourites.
The plant and animal
forms are first studied in
their entirety and then in
detail, the next stage being
the “ Stylisierung,” or
decorative treatment.

The plant forms which
are most commonly em-
ployed in this way are the
fuchsia, the rose, the pink,
the forget - me - not, the
chestnut leaf and blossom,

STENCIL DESIGN FOR WALL-PAPER
{Kunstgewerbe-Schuie, Vienna)

BY LEOPOLDINE KOLBA


237