After visiting Vienna last year for the first time, I have wanted to know more about the Secession Movement and Wiener Werkstätte that influenced so much of the art and architecture of Vienna around the 1900’s. Luckily for me, the Neue Galerie Museum has an exhibition of Koloman Moser: Designing Modern Vienna 1897-1907. There is still time to see his work there until September 2, 2013.
Photograph of Koloman Moser
ca. 1903
Photographer unknown
As soon as I walk into the wonderfully restored and maintained mansion that is the Neue Galerie, I am always transported to another more gracious era. It pleases me, just to be there next to the gracious curved staircase that wends it’s way up the building.
Start your tour at the top of these elegant stairs or take the elevator to the third floor. The show surveys the sum of Moser’s decorative arts career, comprising important interior design commissions, examples of graphic design, furniture, textiles, jewelry, metalwork, glass, and ceramics, many of which are illustrated by rare preparatory drawings and prints.
This wardrobe exemplifies Koloman Moser’s style, which combines formal austerity and sensuous materiality
Poster for the Thirteenth Vienna Secession exhibition
1902
Koloman Moser
Fabric Designed by Koloman Moser
Armchair
ca. 1903
Koloman Moser
Moser designed the pinewood sideboard shown here for the kitchen of a Berlin apartment in 1905
Graphic Design by Koloman Moser
Wardrobe from the bedroom of the Eisler von Terramare apartment
1902-03
Koloman Moser
Shown above are just a few of the wonderful items in the presentation. The show illustrates the sequence of events during this Austrian period of design.
Don’t forget to stop for Viennese cake “mit schlag” at Café Sabarsky before you leave the Neue Galerie!
If after seeing the first American museum show devoted entirely to Koloman Moser, at the Neue Galerie, you are keen to know more of his work, as I was, you can find many design commissions he produced by checking him out on line. Here are a few of my favorites.
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