In the Work of Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), It Was His Preoccupation with the Square That Became the Key to Finding a New Esthetics of Form and Material

Hoffmann, Geometric

Geometric Designs, Josef Hoffmann’s “Puristic Phase”

In the work of Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), it was his preoccupation with the square that became the key to finding a new esthetics of form and material. From 1898 Josef Hoffmann began using squared paper for his designs. Its geometric structure forces the user to be disciplined with their idea, but it does not restrict it like a construction framework. From this point Hoffmann simplified his brilliant drawing style, which he had learned in the Otto Wagner school. Artistic drawing became less important to him than work drawing as a means of noting down ideas, just as it had become constitutive for others, most notably the Wiener Werkstätte. Beginning in 1901/02 it can be seen that he turned away from the curved shapes of floral Jugendstil in favor of strictly geometric forms in his designs and objects.

The “puristic phase” in the work of Josef Hoffmann—during which time the Wiener Werkstätte was founded, and the Sanatorium Purkersdorf (1904) and the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905–1911) were constructed—begins. Geometricism became the trade- mark of Hoffmann’s work, and forms a constant through his entire subsequent oeuvre, even if the first grid objects were in fact designed for the Wiener Werkstätte by his partner Koloman Moser. Hoffmann’s development into a “line artist” was conditioned by the Secession and artists from Great Britain, both of which left a defining impression on him: Charles Robert Ashbee, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh were Corresponding Members of the Secession from 1900 and were repre- sented in the 8th Secession exhibition in Vienna in November 1900, which was dedicat- ed to arts and crafts. Then, in 1902, Hoffmann visited Mackintosh in Glasgow. Austeri- ty, purity, and simplicity characterize the white or black stained furniture of the “Glas- gow Four,” a group of artists founded in the 1870s at the Glasgow School of Art, as they do the creations of C. R. Ashbee.

The square, rectangle, and rhombus as the basic forms of two-dimensional design for arts and crafts objects and architecture also became decisive for Hoffmann from this point. “Usability,” “good proportions,” and “good treatment of materials” are the key words that are found in the Arbeitsprogramm der Wiener Werkstätte [Work Program of the Wiener Werkstätte] of 1905 to define the reformist approaches that had already been reflected in Josef Hoffmann’s drawings. The most striking examples from this geometric creative period are the architecture, furniture, and objects of applied art, which were constructed from borders, the frames thereby creating accentuated areas, for example in the famous flower basket. Once found, Josef Hoffmann would use this surface geometric design system on all future design tasks, be it a wastebasket or a sky- scraper. Even during his engagement with the “Neues Bauen” [New Objectivity in ar-

chitecture] in the 1920s, Hoffmann again took up these motifs from his own repertoire and was consequently “just as modern in the context of his own design tradition […] as the most modern exponent of the ‘Neues Bauen’” (Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, “Neuere Bauten Prof. Josef Hoffmanns,” in: Österreichs Bau- und Werkkunst 2, Vienna 1924/25, 45–46).

–Rainald Franz Curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection

–Elisabeth Schmuttermeier Curator, MAK Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive