![]() Several of his designs are still in production today, including the Rundes Modell cutlery set produced by Alessi, and his Kubus armchair. While he is most celebrated as an architect, Hoffmann’s vast body of work includes furniture, glass, metalwork, porcelain and textiles, with some designs intended for mass production and others for handcrafted items. Part of this aim was also to elevate the decorative arts so that they were given the same value as fine arts. The aim of the Wiener Werkstätte was the complete reform of the applied arts in Europe, and helped to bring together collaborations between the public, designers, and craftsmen. His ideal was to unify architecture with its interior elements, and so Hoffmann joined with Moser to establish the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) in 1903, with the financial support of textiles industrialist Fritz Wärndorfer. These encounters with the leading lights of the Arts and Crafts movement were vitally important in shaping Hoffmann’s ideas, and led him to his theory of Gesamkunstwerk, or ‘total work of art’. In 1900, Josef Hoffmann visited England where he met the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and also visited the influential workshops of C.R. He was highly influential throughout his life in 1899 he was appointed a professor at Vienna’s school of Applied Arts (a position he held until his retirement in 1936), teaching in numerous departments, including architecture, metalwork, and applied arts. ![]() Hoffmann was a central figure in the Secession, contributing to its magazine Ver Sacrum, and he was also responsible for designing a number of their exhibitions. The architect chosen for the project was Josef Olbrich, a young pupil of Otto Wagner and one of only three architects (Josef Hoffmann, and Mayreder) who had joined the Secession. ![]() After his return, he met fellow architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, and together they joined a number of other artists including Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser to form the Vienna Secession group, because they wanted to publicly reject the existing establishment’s emphasis on historicism and tradition. Josef Hoffmann and Leo Kainradl, Philipp & Kramer, Series II/1. Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) trained as an architect, and after winning the prestigious Prix de Rome (a travelling fellowship) in 1895, went to Italy to further his studies. Hoffmann, Josef (1870-1956) Wiener werkstätte exhibition poster by Josef Hoffmann. Today Julie will be exploring the life and work of architect Josef Hoffmann. This is the fifth in a series of posts written by Julie Gibbons on well known people who created surface design as a sideline to their main jobs.
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