1989.111 Josef Hoffmann, Concordia Ball program cover

Decorated with swirling vines and bellflowers, the ornamental scheme on this souvenir program cover and card case suggests the Wiener Werkstätte’s return after 1905 to more ornamental schemes than in its prior two years. The tastes of their clientele and the predilection for such ornamentation by designers like Carl Otto Czeschka may have driven the Werkstätte’s return to and, ultimately, celebration of stylized decoration. This stylistic shift would inform their work through the following decades, foreshadowing the luxurious materials, workmanship, and décor of the French Moderne style. 

Samantha Robinson, “Modern Opulence in Vienna: The Wittgenstein Vitrine” label text (1989.111), 2014.

I uploaded the "Modern Opulence in Vienna: The Wittgenstein Vitrine" label copy to TMS as a new Text Entry. 

I updated Provenance in TMS, Exhibition History, Bibliography, and Published References in TMS.