is realized with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund, and is part of the project “Bilaterale
Designnetzwerke” within the framework of the programme INTERREG V-A Austria – Czech Republic.
Exhibition view
Exhibition view
Josef Hoffmann, Preliminary Sketch for a Poster for the Cabaret Fledermaus
Vienna, 1910
Jutta Sika/specialized class Koloman Moser, set
1901–1902; Execution: Porzellanmanufaktur Josef Böck, Vienna
Koloman Moser, Wanddekor Sylla [Wall Decoration Sylla], Plate 5 from Die Quelle.III. Flächenschmuck
von Koloman Moser
ed. by Martin Gerlach, Vienna 1901; color lithography
Exhibition view
Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice, CZ
JOSEF HOFFMANN—KOLOMAN MOSER
On the Use and Effect of Architecture
Wed, 30.05.2018–Sun, 28.10.2018 Josef Hoffmann Museum, Brtnice, Czech Republic
This year's exhibition in Josef Hoffmann Museum in Brtnice is dedicated to relations between Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) and
Koloman Moser (1868–1918), with 2018 marking the 100th anniversary of Moser’s death. Moser was one of the lead protagonists
during Vienna's artistic renewal around 1900. Together with Josef Hoffmann, he played a decisive role in establishing Stilkunst
in Austria, whether as a co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897, a teacher of decorative painting at the Vienna School
of Arts and Crafts from 1899 onwards, or as cofounder of the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903.
Like Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser possessed an unrestrained creative power and imagination, as evidenced in thousands of
sketches. Yet while Hoffmann remained a tectonically exacting designer, Koloman Moser always incorporated an element of decorative
painting into his projects. He represents the artistic antithesis to Josef Hoffmann’s design practice, which was oriented
towards architecture and the teachings of Otto Wagner. For Moser, the figurative was always of central relevance, while even
in the most austere designs one still senses an illustrative element. In 1905, the Austrian art critic Berta Zuckerkandl concluded
that Koloman Moser’s interior designs manifested “every effort to create purity of form, the desire for noble proportions,
the pursuit of the constructive, the avoidance of the overly decorative, the love of simple profiles, the tendency towards
symmetrical forms.” As a protagonist of the renewal of art in Vienna around 1900, Koloman Moser made a decisive contribution to the introduction
of Stilkunst, including when it came to commercial graphics. The exhibition in Brtnice juxtaposes designs by both protagonists of the
Wiener Werkstätte as well as the end products based on these designs.
The exhibition JOSEF HOFFMANN—KOLOMAN MOSER overlaps spatially and themati-cally with the permanent exhibition JOSEF HOFFMANN: Inspirations, which traces Hoffmann’s sources of artistic inspiration in his place of birth Brtnice.
Curators: Rainald Franz, Curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection; Rostislav Koryčánek, Curator of Architecture and Design, Moravian Gallery, Brno.
The exhibition is held under the patronage of the ambassador of the Czech Republic in Austria, Ivana Červenková.
The exhibition is realized with financial support from the European Regional Development Fund, and is part of the project
“Bilaterale Designnetzwerke” within the framework of the programme INTERREG V-A Austria – Czech Republic.
Registration
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Josef Hoffmann Museum
náměstí Svobody 263 588 32 Brtnice Czech Republic T +420 724 543 722
Opening Hours
May/Jun/Sep/Oct: Tue–Sun 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Jul/Aug: open daily 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Last at 4 p.m.
Admission
CZK 40 / reduced CZK 20
Contact MAK
Rainald Franz T + 43 1 711 36-220
A joint branch of the Moravian Gallery in Brno and the MAK, Vienna.
How to get there from Vienna
Take the “Donauufer” highway A22/E49/E59 and continue on the B303 towards Hollabrunn/Znojmo/Prague, pass Hollabrunn and continue
to the border crossing Kleinhaugsdorf/Znojmo; in Czechia, take the 38/E59 via Znojmo and Moravske Budejovice to Stonarov where
you turn off onto the 402; continue for three kilometers before turning off onto the 403; you will reach the center of Brtnice
after 4 kilometers.
Since 2005, the house in Brtnice, Czech Republic where Josef Hoffmann was born has been playing host to temporary exhibitions
featuring themes related to Hoffman and his circle with the aim of keeping the life and work of this pioneering Austrian architect
alive in the public consciousness.