Josef Hoffmann

During the early 1900s, Vienna emerged as a Modernist hub for architects and designers, with Joseph Hoffmann playing a central role in its development. Most notably, in 1897, along with artists Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser, Hoffmann formed the Vienna Secession, an alliance of artists and designers who sought to develop a new design language distinct from the reigning style of Historicism (an approach to art making that references and recreates dated styles). Shortly thereafter, in 1903, Hoffmann and Moser went on to establish the Wiener Werkstätte, through which they brought together another community of applied artists. Additionally, Hoffmann influenced and collaborated with a younger generation of architects and artists as a professor at Vienna’s School of Applied Arts, from 1899 until his retirement in 1936.

Hoffmann’s elegant designs utilize both abstract and geometric shapes, and he is noted for his successful adaptation to stylistic changes in European art, architecture, and design throughout his lifetime. Early on, Hoffmann’s work was profoundly influenced by Otto Wagner (who he studied under at the Vienna Academy), and like his mentor, Hoffmann produced projects envisioned as Gesamtkunstwerke, or total works of art. These cohesive compositions integrated architecture and interior design, and Hoffmann therefore produced a wide range of objects and furniture, for which he continues to be known today.