Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, Catalogue Raisonné
Text by Detlef Hilmer, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Christian Witt-Doerring, Leonard A. Lauder.
Founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann and designer Koloman Moser, the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshops, gathered architects, artists and designers committed to making design excellence available to all. As a form, the postcard presented a perfect medium for the transmission of these ideals, and so it was that in 1907 the Werkstätte began publishing a series of numbered postcards commemorating holidays, depicting new fashions and documenting the sights of Vienna. All of the major designers who worked for the Wiener Werkstätte--including Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Dagobert Peche, Moriz Jung, Rudolf Kalvach, Mela Koehler and Maria Likarz--contributed to this project, and consequently these postcards constitute an important genre within Wiener Werkstätte production. This fully illustrated volume, published for the Neue Galerie's Fall 2010 exhibition of Wiener Werkstätte postcards (drawn from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection), is the first catalogue raisonné in English devoted to this fascinating, hitherto little-known genre.
"Childhood Dreams: 2. At War," by Wiener Werkstätte artist Richard Teschner, 1911.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
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W.S. Rodner Tidewater
...readers will appreciate the book's index, endnotes, and short bibliography, along with a welcome section devoted to artists' biograpahies. An intensely engaging and beautifully produced volume.
"The postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte, more than any other of its wide range of products, redeem the promise of its ambitious ideology. Basing it on ideas from the British Arts and Crafts movement, the architect Josef Hoffmann, the painter Koloman Moser, and the textile industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer founded the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903 as a cooperative for the products of artisans. They set themselves the task of correcting the negative effects of the stylistic imitation and industrial production of everyday objects that had dominated for seventy years and the consequent impact on the consumer and on society's corresponding attitude towards artisans. The success of the Industrial Revolution lay in finding an economic way to satisfy the desire of the bourgeoisie to flaunt its status based on the model of aristocratic society. This depended on finding cheaper substitutes in terms of materials and techniques, which led to loss of aesthetics and meaning and ultimately to abandoning its own identity and dignity."
Renowned philanthropist and businessman Leonard A. Lauder began a lifetime of passionate collecting at the age of eight, when he purchased his first postcard – "a vividly colored postcard of the Empire State Building, set against the bright orange sky of New York City at sunset." Its "majesty so awed" him that he bought five copies of that same card. Over the following decades, Lauder has gone on to amass one of the most respected and sophisticated postcard collections in the world, including the nearly complete set of Wiener Werkstätte postcards reproduced in this astonishing catalogue raisonné, published by New York's Neue Gallery – the recipient of Lauder's recently donated collection of almost 1000 items. Below are some excerpts from Lauder's introductory essay, alongside a selection of the postcards themselves. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.25 x 11.25 in. / 336 pgs / 1,115 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $90 ISBN: 9783775727518 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 1/31/2011 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, Catalogue Raisonné
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Detlef Hilmer, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Christian Witt-Doerring, Leonard A. Lauder.
Founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann and designer Koloman Moser, the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshops, gathered architects, artists and designers committed to making design excellence available to all. As a form, the postcard presented a perfect medium for the transmission of these ideals, and so it was that in 1907 the Werkstätte began publishing a series of numbered postcards commemorating holidays, depicting new fashions and documenting the sights of Vienna. All of the major designers who worked for the Wiener Werkstätte--including Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Dagobert Peche, Moriz Jung, Rudolf Kalvach, Mela Koehler and Maria Likarz--contributed to this project, and consequently these postcards constitute an important genre within Wiener Werkstätte production. This fully illustrated volume, published for the Neue Galerie's Fall 2010 exhibition of Wiener Werkstätte postcards (drawn from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection), is the first catalogue raisonné in English devoted to this fascinating, hitherto little-known genre.
