Celebrating Josef Hoffmann (1870 – 1956)

We love the work of Josef Hoffmann! He was an architect, furniture and pattern designer who founded the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) in 1910, with fellow artist Koloman Moser and industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer. The workshop was a multi-disciplinary association of artists and craftspeople who were fed up of mass-produced factory items and wanted to make things that were lovingly hand crafted. Although the highly botanical Art Nouveau style was popular at the time, the workshop aimed for a simpler aesthetic, influenced by the Glasgow style of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, along with Japanese and Dutch artists.

Below are two textiles Hoffmann designed for the Wiener Werkstätte in the 1920s.

An exhibition celebrating Hoffman’s work is open at the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) in Vienna.

Until next time creative crew,

Joanna

Hoffmann

Hoffmann WW

(both CC0 credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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