THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE CERAMIC WORKSHOP
The Wiener Werkstätte Ceramic Workshop was opened in 1917 and was in operation until 1931. The Vienna Secession Movement began in 1897 and the Workshops, under the direction of Josef Hoffman, had opened in 1903. From the very beginning ceramics were produced, but manufactured away from the premises. The expense of contracting out the manufacture of the designs, combined with a lack of kindred spirits in the ceramics industry, made the directors decide to open a workshop on their own premises, (the building on Doblingerstrasse, designed and purpose-built for the the Wiener Werkstätte by Otto Wagner).
From the beginning the ceramic workshop was closely connected with the School of Applied Arts in Vienna, the Kunstgewerbeschule. Josef Hoffman and Dagobert Peche were teachers there, and Michael Powolny Professor of Ceramics from 1912 to 1924, The ceramicists at the Wiener Werkstätte from 1917 to 1931 had studied almost exclusively at this design school. It is not surprising that nearly all the designers in the ceramic workshop were ladies, Reni Scaschl, Erna Kopriva, Lotte Calm, Beate Kuhn and Vally Wieselthier, (the last two the only ones who had not been students at the Kunstgewerbeschule). At the time of its opening in 1917, most men embarking on a career would have been away fighting in the war.
Work was either sculptural or functional, and reflects Viennese taste at the time. The glazes were intentionally primitive or experimental, aimed at expression rather than perfection. Rough finishes were considered more beautiful than highly finished smooth ones. The pieces had an originality seldom surpassed in the history of 20th century ceramics. Vally Wieselthier, who says she spent some of the happiest years of her life at the Wiener Werkstätte, says in her unpublished autobiography, 'We had a huge studio, each one of us got a key for himself and we had all the workshops imaginable to our free use. We also had the best trained foremen and workers and all the time and material we desired, I think the erection of this Künstlerwerkstätte really was one of the genial ideas (sic) of Professor Hoffman. We just did as we pleased and when the Wiener Werkstätte would sell one of our products there was always given a big party. We made really beautiful things in no way restricted.'
The items were rare then and are even rarer today. At the time only about one hundred of the thousand designs were executed in editions of more than one hundred pieces. Some pieces were unique. The superb collection offered for sale here provides a rare opportunity to buy some of the best work produced at or for the workshop by its best designers during the late teens and 1920s.
A Wiener Werkstätte terracotta lamp base by Vally Wieselthier, of abstract design, the double square section foot on rectangular plinth base, polychrome glazes (minor chips), stamped with Wiener Werkstätte mark WW, Made in Austria, and with artist's monogram VW, 504/7, 1928-29
Details
A Wiener Werkstätte terracotta lamp base by Vally Wieselthier, of abstract design, the double square section foot on rectangular plinth base, polychrome glazes (minor chips), stamped with Wiener Werkstätte mark WW, Made in Austria, and with artist's monogram VW, 504/7, 1928-29
34cm. high
34cm. high
Literature
Der Österreichische Werkbund, Astrid Gmeiner and Gottfried Pirhofer, Vienna, 1985, p.66 (illustrated only); Europalia 87 Österreich, Galerij ASLK, Brussels, 1987, p.245, p.80; Expressive Keramik der Wiener Werkstätte 1917-1930, Bayerische Vereinsbank, Munich, 1992, p.98, no.71
Exhibited
Munich, Palais Preysing, Expressive Keramik, 19.March-13.June 1992