DOI article:
Wójcik, Agata: The Society for Polish Applied Art versus the Vienna Workshops - an attempt at comparison: stylistic analogies in furniture an interior design
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51757#0137
THE SOCIETY FOR POLISH APPLIED ART VERSUS THE VIENNA WORKSHOPS...
135
7. Karol Tichy, Staircase in his own house,
c. 1913. Courtesy of the Jagiellonian
University Museum
8. Josef Hoffmann, Hall in a sanatorium in Purkersdorf, 1903-1904,
“Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration”, 1906, vol. 18, p. 428
“ornament revenge”. In 1907, Moser left the Workshops. The new, younger generation of designers who
joined the Vienna Workshops in the second decade of the 20th century both distanced themselves from the
tendencies from the Workshops the beginnings and cut themselves off from functionalism. Designers such
as Dagobert Peche, Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill, Carla Otto Czeschka, Michael Powolny, were not afraid
to reinterpret old styles, to exaggerate furniture proportions, to move to the limits of logic, to combine
contrasting shapes, for example, rigid, geometrical forms with curves, the stiffness of wood with the softness
of quilted fabrics; they did not emphasize furniture components, but blurred its borders, “wallpapered” it
with multiplied motifs like a wall, not spatial objects, they used lush ornamentation inspired by ancient
styles, the decorations were stylized and rescaled. The style of Josef Hoffmann was also changed, which
could already be seen in the design of Karl Wittgenstein’s Hochreit hunting cabin (1905). The style change
was visible particularly in the interiors of the Stocklets’ palace in Brussels (1905-1911), dominated by
massive furniture covered with intarsia, leather, or quilted textiles, with spectacularly decorative floors,
wallpapers, wooden or marble wall facings and almost abstract mosaic by Gustav Klimt. After 1909,
Hoffmann clearly turned to classical forms, examples of which were Ast and Skyra-Primavesi villas in
Vienna as well as the Primavesis’ country villa in Winkelsdorf. Their furnishings were an advancement on
the style observed in the Stocklets’ palace. Ornament triumphed around 1910 in ceramics, metal objects,
jewellery, and textiles created in the Workshops by Hoffmann, Carl Otto Czeschki, Michael Powolny,
Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Around that time, there appeared densely placed, multiplied, geometrized
plant ornaments. The artists did not move away from abstract geometrical decorations, however, they gave
them illusionistic forms46.
Similar features can be found in several furniture projects of Polish artists, in those of Karol Frycz
and Henryk Uziemblo, the students of the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. Frycz designed the lady’s room
for the above-mentioned mansion presented at the 1912 Krakow exhibition. The furniture set was of an
exuberant shape; in all pieces, there can be found flexible, fluid, yet strong and determined lines sha-
ping, among others, the backs of chairs, bergère, sofas. In Frycz’s furniture, contrasting combinations and
46 See A. Sieradzka, Art déco w Europie i w Polsce, Warsaw 1996; Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstätte, ed. P. Noever,
H. Egger, New York-New Haven 2002; Yearning for Beauty. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet Hause, ed. P. Noever, V. Doufour,
E.F. Sekler, Ostifem-Ruit 2016.
135
7. Karol Tichy, Staircase in his own house,
c. 1913. Courtesy of the Jagiellonian
University Museum
8. Josef Hoffmann, Hall in a sanatorium in Purkersdorf, 1903-1904,
“Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration”, 1906, vol. 18, p. 428
“ornament revenge”. In 1907, Moser left the Workshops. The new, younger generation of designers who
joined the Vienna Workshops in the second decade of the 20th century both distanced themselves from the
tendencies from the Workshops the beginnings and cut themselves off from functionalism. Designers such
as Dagobert Peche, Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill, Carla Otto Czeschka, Michael Powolny, were not afraid
to reinterpret old styles, to exaggerate furniture proportions, to move to the limits of logic, to combine
contrasting shapes, for example, rigid, geometrical forms with curves, the stiffness of wood with the softness
of quilted fabrics; they did not emphasize furniture components, but blurred its borders, “wallpapered” it
with multiplied motifs like a wall, not spatial objects, they used lush ornamentation inspired by ancient
styles, the decorations were stylized and rescaled. The style of Josef Hoffmann was also changed, which
could already be seen in the design of Karl Wittgenstein’s Hochreit hunting cabin (1905). The style change
was visible particularly in the interiors of the Stocklets’ palace in Brussels (1905-1911), dominated by
massive furniture covered with intarsia, leather, or quilted textiles, with spectacularly decorative floors,
wallpapers, wooden or marble wall facings and almost abstract mosaic by Gustav Klimt. After 1909,
Hoffmann clearly turned to classical forms, examples of which were Ast and Skyra-Primavesi villas in
Vienna as well as the Primavesis’ country villa in Winkelsdorf. Their furnishings were an advancement on
the style observed in the Stocklets’ palace. Ornament triumphed around 1910 in ceramics, metal objects,
jewellery, and textiles created in the Workshops by Hoffmann, Carl Otto Czeschki, Michael Powolny,
Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill. Around that time, there appeared densely placed, multiplied, geometrized
plant ornaments. The artists did not move away from abstract geometrical decorations, however, they gave
them illusionistic forms46.
Similar features can be found in several furniture projects of Polish artists, in those of Karol Frycz
and Henryk Uziemblo, the students of the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. Frycz designed the lady’s room
for the above-mentioned mansion presented at the 1912 Krakow exhibition. The furniture set was of an
exuberant shape; in all pieces, there can be found flexible, fluid, yet strong and determined lines sha-
ping, among others, the backs of chairs, bergère, sofas. In Frycz’s furniture, contrasting combinations and
46 See A. Sieradzka, Art déco w Europie i w Polsce, Warsaw 1996; Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstätte, ed. P. Noever,
H. Egger, New York-New Haven 2002; Yearning for Beauty. The Wiener Werkstätte and the Stoclet Hause, ed. P. Noever, V. Doufour,
E.F. Sekler, Ostifem-Ruit 2016.