The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1911)

AUSTRIAN ARCHITECTURE AND DE-
CORATION. By A. S. Levetus.
ALTHOUGH no startling developments in the domain ot
architecture and decorative art are to be recorded, still
a marked and steady progress is everywhere noticeable.
Many new buildings have been erected, chiefly shops,
cafes and villas, and everywhere the work of the leading architects
is to be recognised. Professors Otto Wagner, Ohmann, Josel
Hoffmann and Otto Prutscher, Robert Oerley, Freiherr von Krauss,
Carl Witzmann, Josef Urban, Josef Plecnik, Hans Prutscher, Alfred
Keller and Adolf Loos have been busy. In Bohemia, Moravia,
Carniola, Tyrol, Styria, and other provinces there is much of
interest to be seen. There is a growing desire for modernity,
though this, as in all countries, gives occasion for empty imitations
of good work. It is, however, significant that the best men are
well occupied. Professor Kotera in Prague, Gottfried Czermak in
Brunn, Bruno Emmel in Znaim, have executed much good work
during the past year. To these should be added Dusan Jurkovic,
who is doing his best to promote true architecture, as may be seen
in the Tourist Station here reproduced (pages 220 and 221).
In the provinces, too, the action of Arbeits Ministerium in
appointing modern men, trained in the Vienna Arts and Crafts
Schools, as Professors in the various Fachschulen, is bearing good
fruit. A new school has lately been opened at Steyr, an old city in
Lower Austria. Here an ancient industry, that of steel engraving
and damascene work, is taught by a past master of this almost lost
art, Herr Blumenhuber.
The increasing attention given to the carpet and textile industries
has created a new field for designers, and it is significant that some
of the manufacturers are recognising that it is to their advantage
to employ none but first-class men. Hence it is that the artists
have made themselves acquainted with the technicalities of weaving,
so that the difficulties at one time existing between the designer
and the worker have been mastered. This is also noticeable in
other domains where the artist and manufacturer are being brought
together. Much of this is due to the revival of the exhibitions
held at the Austrian Museum for Arts and Industry, for it brings
together not alone the artists, but also the manufacturers, who are
naturally desirous of showing an appreciative public what they
can produce. Hofrat Leisching has shown that he is in full sym-
pathy with the movement by the two exhibitions held since his
appointment as Director.
The Wiener Werkstaette, which was started some seven years
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