There are some interesting fabric pieces to see at the National Gallery of Victoria Vienna Art and Design exhibition, although I could have done with more of Josef Hoffman’s Wiener Werkstätte textile designs.
Textile production played a big role in the “total work of art” concept known as Gesamtkunstwerk – something I wrote about in an earlier post.
Although slightly creepy in its desire to match women’s clothes with interiors, they came up with some striking designs.
| Josef Hoffmann, Adler, 1910, fabric sample |
I loved seeing this thickly textured woven coat.
| Wiener Werkstätte, Coat, c 1925 |
The garment marks the stripping away of any extra decoration which was to become a feature of modernism. This sort of thing had started happening in the weaving workshops at the Bauhaus in Germany.
Julia Ritson
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