Viennese Design

At the turn of the twentieth century, Vienna emerged as a great cultural centre that stood at the forefront of developments in music, psychology, and the natural sciences. Equally influential, and still tremendously popular today, are the designs of the Wiener Werkstatte, or Vienna Workshop, a group that was at the heart of the city's cultural scene and whose collaborators included such luminaries as the architect Josef Hoffman, the designer Koloman Moser, and the painters Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Egon Schiele. This guide to the arts and crafts of fin-de-siecle Vienna is an excellent introduction to their work in all media - from architecture, furniture, ceramics, and glass, to silver, fashion, and textiles, bookbinding, toys, painting, and the graphic arts - as well as a survey of the cultural development of this pivotal period.