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Lot Essay
The Cabaret Fledermaus opened in Vienna in 1907 at Kartnerstrasse 33. It was a perfect opportunity for Hoffmann to create a true Gesamtkunstwerk, with no constraints placed upon him by a demanding or opinionated client.
"We have focussed attention artistically and with equal love both upon the most inconspicuous detail and whatever loomed largest. The interior layout and the tableware, the lighting equipment and the most humble necessities are all derived from a single central integration conception of the way to organise space..." Virtually all the WW designers worked on the project, as well as Oscar Kokoshka and Gustav Klimt.
In addition to creating, with Michael Powolny, the striking and colorful maiolica-tiled mosaic frieze which ran the length of the bar and through into the hallways, Löffler was also responsible for much of the graphic art and publicity material associated with the enterprise. This included the Cabaret's 'logo', used on the enameled hostess pins, and on the cover of the opening programme.
Contemporary critic Ludwig Hevesi wrote in 1907:
"..the Cabaret Fledermaus is a truly charming thing, starting from the programme book with Czeschka's inimitable imprint, right down to the little white metal badge worn by the staff and displaying an ultra-slender little lady smelling a rose, outlined in black enamel and so stylised that she seems to be little more that a geometric abstraction. ..Whatever the Wiener Werkstätte lays its hands on is always genuine."
"We have focussed attention artistically and with equal love both upon the most inconspicuous detail and whatever loomed largest. The interior layout and the tableware, the lighting equipment and the most humble necessities are all derived from a single central integration conception of the way to organise space..." Virtually all the WW designers worked on the project, as well as Oscar Kokoshka and Gustav Klimt.
In addition to creating, with Michael Powolny, the striking and colorful maiolica-tiled mosaic frieze which ran the length of the bar and through into the hallways, Löffler was also responsible for much of the graphic art and publicity material associated with the enterprise. This included the Cabaret's 'logo', used on the enameled hostess pins, and on the cover of the opening programme.
Contemporary critic Ludwig Hevesi wrote in 1907:
"..the Cabaret Fledermaus is a truly charming thing, starting from the programme book with Czeschka's inimitable imprint, right down to the little white metal badge worn by the staff and displaying an ultra-slender little lady smelling a rose, outlined in black enamel and so stylised that she seems to be little more that a geometric abstraction. ..Whatever the Wiener Werkstätte lays its hands on is always genuine."