He resented social injustice and squalor, which was a direct result of a ‘greed is good’ mentality that accompanied the unbridled capitalism of the late nineteenth century brought about by the Industrial Revolution. He became a moral guide or prophet, if you like during the latter years of the nineteenth century. ‘Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality’ said English author and art critic John Ruskin 1819 – 1900. The upper and middle classes were enjoying this supremacy. At the time England was indisputably the greatest and richest nation in the world with no rivals seriously threatening its trade and industry. Their views less dogmatic, manners smoother, prose and morals much easier. Their aspirations and expectations were far different from that of their parents. They were clamouring for the best life could offer. By the beginning of the twentieth century in Europe, England and America immense wealth was generating a new and youthful society with different priorities and objectives. The industrial revolution of the nineteenth century as it progressed was rapidly changing the face of the rest of the western world. And there they stayed until long after his death, bound by fear. Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859) instituted strict political censorship enforcing a comprehensive espionage system that kept the government informed of potential subversive movements.Īs a consequence citizens refrained from protest or criticism and withdrew into political indifference, while cultivating a style of sheltered domesticity. Its citizen’s had embraced elegance and opulence, although they were restrained now by a constricting conservatism brought about by the repressive political climate they now lived under following French Emperor Napoleon’s rout of Europe. Vienna during Danhauser’s time was the capital of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire that stretched from Italy to Russia. His distinctive style is recorded in a collection of drawings at the Österreichisches Museum at Wien (Vienna) where wallpaper and fabrics he designed anticipate the modern movement by nearly a hundred years. The rooms he designed had more in common with Hollywood or Paris they were so visionary. He placed an emphasis on simplified forms, stylization of motifs and pared down decoration. To gain an understanding of the inspiration for the ‘modern’ movements in Vienna we need to regress to the early nineteenth century when Viennese born painter, designer, craftsmen, historian Austrian Josef Danhauser (1805-1845) saw himself as a thoroughly modern man.įollowing his father’s death in 1829 at Vienna he found himself designing whole rooms as he brought his families furniture factory into that era of modernity.
Many were seeking to establish essential truths about the body and the mind as it wasn’t about what you appeared to be any more, but who you were and your words, your deeds and your actions now needed to be aligned. The personal façade of the citizens of Vienna, that had been so carefully cultivated for centuries, was under scrutiny as new thoughts about gender and sexuality were emerging.
The development of art and design at Vienna, at the turn of the twentieth century was all about painting, drawings, sculpture and graphic art, as well as design in architecture, furniture, jewellery, costume, ceramics and glass.Īt Vienna where the waltz once reigned supreme, during an age of empirical opulence, new attitudes were surfacing in its literature and intellectual ideas were reflected in the music of composers such as Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg who wanted to abandon established norms. Not to forget Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and sculptor Charles Rennie MacIntosh (1868-1928), who was the main exponent of Art Nouveau in the U.K and architect designer, writer and educator an all round genius, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 – 1959) in America. These include in England the Aesthetic Movement and Arts and Crafts, French Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, Wiener Werkstatte, Northern European Jugendstil (Youthful Style), Art Deco and the German Bauhaus Modernists. Modernism is a term the art community has adopted in recent years to describe the many and diverse styles of art and design created between 18. With an act of youthful idealism, a spirit of sacrifice and displaying a willingness to work hard, they plunged headlong into leading Vienna into a new age of modernity. ‘To each century its art, to art its Freedom’ was the credo of the modernists at Vienna (Wien) during the period that began with the founding of the Vienna Secession, a society of Austrian artists, who staged their first exhibition in March 1898.
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