Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann
Born	(1870-12-15)December 15, 1870 Brtnice, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Died	May 7, 1956(1956-05-07) (aged 85) Vienna, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Work
Buildings	Sanatorium Purkersdorf Stoclet Palace Ast Residence Skywa-Primavesi Residence
Projects	Vienna Secession Wiener Werkstätte

Josef Hoffmann (December 15, 1870, Brtnice. Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic – May 7, 1956, Vienna, Austria) was an Austrian architect and designer of consumer goods.

Biography[link]

Hoffmann studied at the Higher State Crafts School in Brno beginning in 1887 and then worked with the local military planning authority in Würzburg. Thereafter he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner, graduating with a Prix de Rome in 1895. In Wagner's office, he met Joseph Maria Olbrich, and together they founded the Vienna Secession in 1897 along with artists Gustav Klimt, and Koloman Moser.^[1] Beginning in 1899, he taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. With the Secession, Hoffmann developed strong connections with other artists. He designed installation spaces for Secession exhibitions and a house for Moser which was built from 1901-1903. However, he soon left the Secession in 1905 along with other stylist artists due to conflicts with realist naturalists over differences in artistic vision and disagreement over the premise of Gesamtkunstwerk.^[2] With the banker Fritz Wärndorfer and the artist Koloman Moser he established the Wiener Werkstätte, which was to last until 1932. He designed many products for the Wiener Werkstätte of which designer chairs, most notably "Sitzmaschine" Chair, a lamp, and sets of glasses have reached the collection of the Museum of Modern Art,^[3] and a tea service has reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[4]

Sanatorium Purkersdorf

Hoffmann's style eventually became more sober and abstract and it was limited increasingly to functional structures and domestic products. In 1906, Hoffmann built his first great work on the outskirts of Vienna, the Sanatorium Purkersdorf . Compared to the Moser House, with its rusticated vernacular roof, this was a great advancement towards abstraction and a move away from traditional Arts and Crafts and historicism. This project served as a major precedent and inspiration for the modern architecture that would develop in the first half of the 20th century, for instance the early work of Le Corbusier.^[5] It had a clarity, simplicity, and logic that foretold of a Neue Sachlichkeit.^[6]

Palais Stoclet

Through contacts with Adolphe Stoclet, who sat on the supervisory board of the Austro-Belgischen Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, he was commissioned to build the Palais Stoclet in Brussels from 1905 to 1911 for this wealthy banker and railway financier. This masterpiece of Jugendstil, was an example of Gesamtkunstwerk, replete with murals in the dining room by Klimt and four copper figures on the tower by Franz Metzner. In 1907, Hoffmann was co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund, and in 1912 of the Österreichischer Werkbund. After World War II, he took on official tasks, that of an Austrian general commissioner with the Venice Biennale and a membership in the art senate.

Kubus armchair

Some of Hoffmann's domestic designs can still be found in production today, such as the Rundes Modell cutlery set that is manufactured by Alessi. Originally produced in silver the range is now produced in high quality stainless steel. Another example of Hoffmann’s strict geometrical lines and the quadratic theme is the iconic Kubus Armchair. Designed in 1910, it was presented at the International Exhibition held in Buenos Aires on the centennial of Argentinean Independence known as May Revolution. Hoffmann's constant use of squares and cubes earned him the nickname "Quadratl-Hoffmann" (little square Hoffmann).

Teaching at University of Applied Arts Vienna[link]

Although he said little to his students, Hoffmann was a highly esteemed and admired teacher. He tried to bring out the best in each member of his class by means of challenging assignments, which were occasionally work on real commissions. Where he detected talent among young artists he was willing or eager to promote it; Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Le Corbusier were the most prominent beneficiaries of his benevolence towards a promising next generation. Le Corbusier was offered a job in his office, Schiele was helped financially and Kokoschka was given work in the Wiener Werkstätte. As a member of the international jury for the competition to design a palace for the League of Nations at Geneva in 1927, he belonged to the minority who voted for Le Corbusier’s project, and the latter always spoke with admiration of his Viennese colleague. Hoffmann had voted for the union of Austria with Germany and, as noted in Tim Bonyhady's "Good Living Street. The fortunes of my Viennese family" (2011), the architect was admired by the Nazis who appointed him a Special Commissioner for Viennese Arts and Crafts and commissioned him to remodel the former German embassy building into the "Haus der Wehrmacht" for army officers. Following its use by the British Government from 1945 to 1955 it was demolished.

Critical reception and posthumous reputation[link]

The critical reception of Hoffmann’s oeuvre has faithfully mirrored the changing tastes and ideologies in the history of 20th-century architecture. He received favourable attention from the critics early in his career; in 1901 The Studio brought him to the attention of the English-speaking world through an illustrated article written by Fernand Khnopff. He was also given extensive coverage in the special volume The Art Revival in Austria that was published by The Studio in 1906. In France, Art et décoration published favourable reviews of his early and his mature work. Naturally his most extensive and detailed reviews are found in German-language periodicals, in particular Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration where many well-illustrated articles were devoted to his designs. His international exhibition work also helped to make his name widely known, and many distinguished contributors to the Festschrift on his 60th birthday acclaimed him as a master. Honours bestowed on him included the cross of a commander of the Légion d’honneur and the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects. The critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock in 1929 wrote, ‘In Germany as well as in Austria, Hoffmann’s manner has profoundly influenced the New Tradition’. Only three years later, however, when together with Philip Johnson he published The International Style, Hitchcock no longer even mentioned Hoffmann’s name. Siegfried Giedion in his influential Space, Time and Architecture did not do justice to Hoffmann’s oeuvre because it would not fit easily into his polemically simplified version of architectural history. Despite honours and praise on the occasions of Hoffmann’s 80th and 85th birthdays, he was virtually forgotten by the time of his death. Although his true stature and contribution were acknowledged by such masters as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Gio Ponti and Carlo Scarpa, the younger generation of architects and historians ignored him.

The process of rediscovery and reappraisal began in 1956 with a small book by Giulia Veronesi and during the 1970s gained momentum with a number of exhibitions and smaller publications. In the 1980s several monographs were published and major exhibitions held. Imitations of his style also began to occur, and replicas of his furniture, fabrics, and of some objects he had designed became commercial successes, while original pieces and drawings from his hand fetched record prices in the auction-rooms.

Selected architecture works[link]

Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

• 1900-1911 Designer for Hohe Warte Artists’ Colony
• 1900-1901 Double House for Koloman Moser and Carl Moll
• 1904 Sanatorium Purkersdorf
• 1905–1906 House for the writer Richard Beer-Hofmann in Vienna
• 1905–1911 Palais Stoclet in Brussels, Belgium
• 1907 Interior decoration of Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna
• 1909–1911 Ast Residence in Vienna
• 1913–1915 Skywa-Primavesi Residence in Vienna
• 1913–1914 Country house for Otto Primavesi (www.primavesi.eu) in Kouty nad Desnou (Winkelsdorf), Moravia (destroyed by fire in 1922^[7])
• 1919-1924 House for Sigmund Berl in Bruntal, Moravia
• 1920-1921 Villa for Fritz Grohmann in Vrbno pod Pradedem, Moravia
• 1923–1925 Urban Klosehof Housing Complex
• 1924-1925 Villa Knips in Vienna, made for Sonja Knips
• 1930–1932 Four row houses for the Viennese Werkbund’s settlement
• 1934 Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Selected furniture works[link]

Sitzmaschine Armchair in black color

• 1904 Purkersdorf Armchair
• 1905 Sitzmaschine Armchair
• 1905 Kunstschau Armchair
• 1905-1910 Palais Stoclet Armchair
• 1907 Fledermaus Chair
• 1908 Siebenkugelstuhl Chair
• 1908 Armloffel Chair
• 1910 Kubus Armchair
• 1910 Club Armchair
• 1911 Haus Koller Chair

References[link]

Literature[link]

• Sarnitz, August (2007). Josef Hoffmann. In the Realm of Beauty. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 978-3-8228-5591-1. 
• Fahr-Becker, Gabriele (2008). Wiener Werkstätte: 1903-1932. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-3773-3. 
• Sekler, Eduard (1982). Josef Hoffmann. Das Architektonische Werk; Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Salzburg: Residenz. ISBN 3-7017-0306-X. 
• Vives Chillida, Julio (2008). Josef Hoffmann y Jacob & Josef Kohn en la Kunstschau Wien de 1908, (La pequeña casa de campo: una efímera obra de arte total). Lulu.com (print on demand). ISBN 978-1-4092-0239-4. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Josef Hoffmann

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Josef Hoffmann

• http://www.mastersofmodernism.com/?page=Silver&sp=va&item=1
• His entry in the aeiou Encyclopaedia
• Josef Hoffmann and the Wiener Werkstaette, WOKA VIDEO 1995, Screenwriter and director Wolfgang Karolinsky 40 min
• Josef Hoffmann Biografie at WOKA (de/en)
• Illustrated history of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium
• Interior of the Purkersdorf Sanatorium in historical setup
• Wiener Werkstätte
• Arts and Crafts in Vienna 1900
• Josef Hoffmann Furniture Design
• Josef Hoffmann Lighting Design
• Papers of Franz Josef Maria Hoffmann, 1895-1950 The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs and other papers of the Austrian designer and architect, Josef Hoffmann, document his involvement in the arts and crafts movement and his writings in art education.

Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876 – February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.

Biography[link]

Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze, near Kraków, Austria-Hungary (now Poland) in 1876. His father was the composer, conductor and pianist Kazimierz Hofmann, and his mother the singer Matylda Pindelska. A child prodigy, he gave a debut recital in Warsaw at the age of 5, and a long series of concerts throughout Europe and Scandinavia, culminating in a series of concerts in America in 1887-88 that elicited comparisons with young Mozart and young Mendelssohn.^[1] Anton Rubinstein took Hofmann as his only private student in 1892 and arranged the debut of his pupil in Hamburg, Germany in 1894. Hofmann toured and performed extensively over the next 50 years as one of the most celebrated pianists of the era.^[2] In 1913, he was presented with a set of keys to the city of St. Petersburg, Russia.

As a composer, Hofmann published over one hundred works, many of those under the pseudonym Michel Dvorsky, including two piano concertos and ballet music. He made the United States his base during World War I and became a US citizen in 1926. In 1924, he became the first head of the piano department at the inception of the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and became the Institute's director in 1927 and remained so until 1938.

He was instrumental in recruiting illustrious musicians such as Efrem Zimbalist, Fritz Reiner, Marcella Sembrich, and Leopold Auer as Curtis faculty. Hofmann's pupils included Jean Behrend, Abram Chasins, Abbey Simon, Shura Cherkassky, Ezra Rachlin, Nadia Reisenberg (see ^[3]), and Harry Kaufman. While not a pupil, Jorge Bolet benefited from Hofmann's interest. In 1937, the 50th anniversary of his New York debut performance was celebrated with gala performances including a "Golden Jubilee" recital at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In 1938 he was forced to leave the Curtis Institute of Music over financial and administrative disputes. In the years from 1939 to 1946, his artistic eminence deteriorated, in part due to family difficulties and alcoholism.^[4] In 1946, he gave his last recital at Carnegie Hall, home to his 151 appearances, and retired to private life in 1948. He spent his last decade in Los Angeles in relative obscurity, working on inventions and keeping a steady correspondence with associates. ^[5]

As an inventor, Hofmann had over 70 patents, and his invention of pneumatic shock absorbers for cars and airplanes was commercially successful from 1905 to 1928. Other inventions included a windscreen wiper, a furnace that burned crude oil, a house that revolved with the sun, a device to record dynamics (U.S. patent number 1614984^[6]) in reproducing piano rolls that he perfected just as the roll companies went out of business, and piano action improvements adopted by the Steinway Company (U.S. patent number 2263088^[7]).

Hofmann died of pneumonia on February 16, 1957. He was survived by four children. His second wife, Betty Short, had previously been one of his pupils.^[8]

The Josef Hofmann Piano Competition, co-sponsored by the American Council for Polish Culture and the University of South Carolina Aiken was established in his honor in 1994.^[9]

Career as a child prodigy[link]

Hofmann as a young man at the keyboard.

Anton Rubinstein heard the seven-year old Hofmann play Beethoven's C Minor Piano Concerto in Warsaw and declared him to be an unprecedented talent (see ^[10] and ^[11]). At Rubinstein's suggestion, German impresario Hermann Wolff offered career management and to send the boy on a European tour, but Hofmann's father refused to let the boy travel until he was nine years old. At that age, Hofmann gave concerts in Germany, France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Great Britain.^[10]

In 1887, an American tour was arranged and after three months of performances that included fifty recitals, seventeen of which were at the Metropolitan Opera House. Yet soon after,the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children stepped in, citing the boy's fragile health. However, as per the contract that had paid Hofmann $10,000, he was legally obliged to complete the tour. The contract was rendered void by Alfred Corning Clark who donated $50,000 and, in turn, legally forbade Hofmann to perform in public until he turned 18 years old.^[2] The final segment of the tour was cancelled and the family returned to Potsdam, outside Berlin. This marked the end of Hofmann's child prodigy years. (See ^[12] and ^[10] for details.) At the age of 12, young Josef Hofmann was probably the first pianist of note to record on Edison's phonograph; Hans von Bülow recorded a Chopin Mazurka on Edison's improved phonograph the same year, i.e., 1888. ^[13]

Education in music[link]

Clark's donation enabled Hofmann to continue individual study in science and mathematics, and he continued to take music lessons from Heinrich Urban (composition)and with the pianist and composer Moritz Moszkowski. In 1892, Rubinstein accepted Hofmann as his only private pupil, the two meeting for 42 sessions in Dresden's Hotel d'Europe. Initial lessons, a week apart, included ten Bach Preludes and Fugues and two Beethoven sonatas, from memory. Hofmann was never allowed to bring the same composition twice, as Rubinstein said as a teacher he would probably forget what he told the student during the previous lesson. Rubinstein never played for Hofmann, but gave ample evidence of his pianistic outlook during many recitals the boy heard. In a three-day period Hofmann heard in Berlin's new Bechstein Hall recitals by Hans von Bülow, Johannes Brahms and Rubinstein, and commented on their radically different playing. Rubinstein arranged Hofmann's adult debut on March 14, 1894, in Hamburg's Symphonic Assembly Hall, the piece being Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor, with the composer conducting. After the concert, Rubinstein told Hofmann there would be no more lessons, and they never saw each other again. In later years Hofmann referred to his relationship with the titanic Russian master as the "most important event in my life.". ^[10]

Hofmann at the end of his career[link]

By the early 1930s, Hofmann had become an alcoholic but he retained exceptional pianistic command throughout this decade; Rudolf Serkin and a young Glenn Gould have recounted magical impressions created on them by Hofmann's concerts in mid-and-late 1930s. ^{[14] [15]} After his departure from the Curtis institute in 1938, a combination of his drinking, marital problems and a loss of interest in performing caused a rapid deterioration in his artistic abilities. Commenting on Hofmann's sharp decline, Sergei Rachmaninoff said, "Hofmann is still sky high ... the greatest pianist alive if he is sober and in form. Otherwise, it is impossible to recognize the Hofmann of old". ^[16] Oscar Levant wrote, "one of the terrible tragedies of music was the disintegration of Josef Hofmann as an artist. In his latter days, he became an alcoholic. …[H]is last public concert … was an ordeal for all of us". ^[17]

Technique and style[link]

Josef Hofmann playing solos in the Metropolitan Opera House gala on Nov. 28, 1937, the 50th anniversary of his American debut.

Hofmann's views on technique and musicianship are explained in his book Piano Playing with Questions Answered.^[18] He had small but exceptionally strong hands.^[2] Steinway eventually built for him a custom keyboards with slightly narrower keys (pianist/critic Stephen Hough has commented on how Hofmann's mechanical understanding of the Steinway piano action set him apart from all other pianists.^[19]) His concert instruments had subtle action changes for faster repetition, two pedals rather than three (he liked the older Steinway trap work geometry), faultless regulation, and were accompanied on tours by his own recital chair, built with a short folding back and a 1½" slope from rear to front. After playing Hofmann's special concert instrument in the Steinway New York basement, Gunnar Johannsen reported that the piano had the biggest sonority of any he had ever tried.

Unlike Rubinstein, Hofmann sat quietly at the piano,^[2] striking the keys in a kneading manner. His finger staccato was at the time unequaled, as was his orchestral sonority. According to his student Nadia Reisenberg, he continuously used a combination of finger pedalling and foot pedalling.^[3] New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg said Hofmann had all of Leopold Godowsky's technique,^[2] a claim approved by Godowsky himself. ^[20] By his own admission, Sergei Rachmaninoff, in his 40s, prepared for a career as a concert pianist by practicing over 15 hours a day with the goal of attaining the level of Hofmann's technique.^[20] When pianist Ralph Berkowitz was asked if Vladimir Horowitz had the greatest technique of all the pianists he had heard, Berkowitz replied that Horowitz indeed was the supreme master of the technical parts of performance, but one older era pianist was his equal - Hofmann.

Hofmann's approach and style can be summarized by his motto "an aristocrat never hurries". ^[20] He often stated that Rubinstein and Moriz Rosenthal were the only pianists that influenced his art, and admired singers Mattia Battistini and Marcella Sembrich (see ^[2] and ^[14]). He adopted a more demonstrative style in live performances but a subtle and restrained style for his studio recordings; in both cases, he mostly adhered to the printed score, occasionally doubling left-hand octaves, and shunned sentimentality. ^[2] He put spontaneity rather than structure foremost and admitted to Rachmaninoff that "I do not know how to build a composition ... occasionally, it happens to sound well".^[2] Schonberg wrote that among Hofmann's contemporaries, only Godowsky had the finish and refinement of Hofmann but lacked Hofmann's color, fire, and "red blood", while only Ferruccio Busoni and Rachmaninoff were ever mentioned by contemporaries as Hofmann's equals.^[2] After hearing a performance of Chopin's B minor Sonata by Hofmann, Rachmaninoff cut that piece from his own repertoire saying "not since Anton Rubinstein have I heard such titanic playing".^[20]

Suggested examples illustrating Hofmann's style:,,^[21][22],^[23][24],^[25][26],^[27][28],^[29][30],,,^[31][32][33] and ^[34] (dedicated to him by Sigismond Stojowski).

Repertoire, musical ear and memory[link]

Hofmann's repertoire was mostly confined to music written before the start of the 20th century. Much like Rubinstein's seven historic recitals of 1885, he gave 21 consecutive concerts in St. Petersburg without repeating a single piece, playing 255 different works from memory during that marathon cycle in 1912–1913.^[35] In the diary his wife kept during his 1909 Russian tour, she mentions his raising his eyebrows when he saw Brahms' Handel Variations on a program—a piece he had not played or even looked at for two and a half years. He played the work at the concert without hesitation.^[35] Although a poor sight reader, he was said to possess the ability of Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns to hear a composition once and play it back correctly without seeing the printed notes. Rosina Lhévinne recalled that Hofmann heard her husband Josef Lhévinne play Liszt's Lorelei, a piece Hofmann had never heard but went on to play it "just like my Josef (Lhevinne)" for an encore at his concert later that day.^[36] Maurice Aronson, who served as Leopold Godowsky's assistant, recalled Hofmann learning Godowsky's Fledermaus transcription. Godowsky and Hofmann met in Berlin in 1900, becoming friends until Godowsky's death in 1938. Hofmann would visit Godowsky's studio and listen while Godowsky was composing Fledermaus. A week later Hofmann visited Godowsky again and played the entire transcription, and he had never seen the music. Godowsky, in fact, had not yet written it down. Schonberg has added that Godowsky's Fledermaus is one of the most resourceful and complicated stunts ever written for the piano.^[36]

Recordings[link]

Hofmann started recording in studio in 1880's but was never satisfied with the available technology and made only test pressings after 1923;^[2] he considered the test pressings made for HMV in November 1935 to be a worthwhile representation of his art. ^[37] In the 1940s he recorded for the Bell Telephone Hour radio programs which include Hofmann's only filmed appearance, playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2. Gregor Benko has remarked that Hofmann should not have appeared on many of the Bell Telephone Hour broadcasts since, by this time, his pianistic control had deteriorated considerably though the tonal palette was still immense and the phrasing provocative (see ^[37] and ^[2]). Hofmann's student Jeanne Behrend, after first hearing the recordings from 1940 to 1946, stated "well, it's his playing, but nothing like what we heard in the 1920s."

Cylinders recorded c. 1890 for Thomas Edison were some of the earliest recordings of classical music and were lost during World War I. Four cylinders made in Russia in 1895–1896, with music by Mendelssohn, Louis Brassin and Rubinstein, have been recently discovered and issued on CD.^[38] He made two series of reproducing piano rolls, including in 1913 23 pieces for Welte-Mignon but did not trust rolls as an accurate representation of his playing. Hofmann recorded acoustic discs from 1912 to 1923 for Columbia and Brunswick, but felt the representation of his chaste and prismatic tonal palette was not captured. He did experiment with short studio test recordings in 1935, and in retirement in California experimented with piano string electrical pickups and designing an additional spruce soundboard under the piano lid. At least three of his concerts in 1930's were recorded live. These concert recordings exhibit an older Hofmann (age 60-62) in public just prior to the sharp decline in his pianistic command, and include sensational readings of Chopin's G minor Ballade, Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, A-flat Waltz (Op. 42) and F minor Ballade. All of these recordings have recently been published on compact discs under the auspices of Gregor Benko and audio restorer Ward Marston.^[39]

Controversial stature[link]

Harold C. Schonberg has argued that Hofmann was the most flawless and possibly the greatest pianist of the 20th century.^[2] HMV and RCA unsuccessfully pursued recording projects with Hofmann in the 1930s. Rachmaninoff dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (1909) to Hofmann, although Hofmann disliked it and never played it. Older generation critics such as James Huneker labeled Hofmann the "king of pianists", and Samuel Chotzinoff called him the "greatest pianist of our time." Contemporaries such as Rachmaninoff, Ignaz Friedman, Josef Lhévinne, and Godowsky considered Hofmann to be, overall, the greatest pianist of their generation,^[16][20] but the acclaim was not so universal from the next generation of pianists.^[14] In his autobiography Arthur Rubinstein criticized Hofmann as someone who took interest in only the mechanics of music and not in its heart or spirituality, and commented that at the end of Hofmann's career "he was left with nothing after his technique left him".^[40] Claudio Arrau dismissed Hofmann (along with Paderewski) as someone who only happened to be very famous and said "I didn't know what to do with him".^[41] Sviatoslav Richter, after listening to a Hofmann RCA test pressing of the Scherzo from Beethoven's Sonata in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3, considered the older pianist to be technically "stunning", but noted that Hofmann ignored the composer's sforzando markings; while György Sándor has called him the greatest of all 20th century pianists in terms of music, interpretation, and technique.^[42] Hofmann's own student Shura Cherkassky compared Horowitz favorably with Hofmann as follows: "Hofmann was possibly the greater musical mind. But, I think, Horowitz was the greater pianist, the greater virtuoso—he somehow appealed to the whole world. Hofmann could not communicate on that level".^[14]

Bibliography[link]

Hofmann's books were based on his frequent articles in the Ladies' Home Journal:

• Piano Playing: A Little Book of Simple Suggestions (1907) — e-text
• Piano Questions Answered (1909)
• Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered (1920, compilation of the first two books) — e-text, ISBN 0-486-23362-6 and ISBN 1-150-03067-4

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about Josef Hofmann.

• Josef Hofmann Collection, International Piano Archives, University of Maryland
• Free scores by Józef Hofmann at the International Music Score Library Project
• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)
• Jan Żdżarski: Józef Hofmann Geniusz zapomniany, Wydawnictwo STO, www.sto.com.pl
• Historical Marker Database Josef Hofmann Historical Marker, Aiken, SC

Gustav Klimt
Photographic portrait from 1914
Birth name	Gustav Klimt
Born	July 14, 1862 Baumgarten, Austrian Empire
Died	February 6, 1918(1918-02-06) (aged 55) Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Nationality	Imperial Austrian
Field	Painter
Movement	Symbolism, Art Nouveau
Works	Judith and the Head of Holofernes, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, The Kiss, Danaë
Influenced	Egon Schiele

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862– February 6, 1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects. Klimt's primary subject was the female body,^[1] and his works are marked by a frank eroticism—nowhere is this more apparent than in his numerous drawings in pencil (see Mulher sentada, below).^[2]

Life and work[link]

Early life and education[link]

Egon Schiele, Klimt in a light Blue Smock, 1913

Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary, the second of seven children—three boys and four girls.^[3] All three sons displayed artistic talent early on. Klimt's younger brothers were Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt. His father, Ernst Klimt the Elder, formerly from Bohemia, was a gold engraver.^[4] Ernst married Anna Klimt (née Finster), whose unrealized ambition was to be a musical performer. Klimt lived in poverty for most of his childhood, as work was scarce and economic advancement was difficult for immigrants.

In 1876, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied until 1883, and received training as an architectural painter.^[4] He revered the foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart. Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic.^[4] In 1877 his brother Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend Franz Matsch began working together; by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team they called the "Company of Artists", and helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.^[4] Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße including a successful series of "Allegories and Emblems".

In 1888, Klimt received the Golden order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna.^[4] He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna. In 1892 both Klimt's father and brother Ernst died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies affected his artistic vision as well, and soon he would veer toward a new personal style. In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who, notwithstanding the artist's relationships with other women, was to be his companion until the end of his life. Whether his relationship with Flöge was sexual or not is debated, but during that period Klimt fathered at least 14 children.^[5]

Vienna secession years[link]

Klimt became one of the founding members and president of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) in 1897 and of the group's periodical Ver Sacrum ("Sacred Spring"). He remained with the Secession until 1908. The group's goals were to provide exhibitions for unconventional young artists, to bring the best foreign artists' works to Vienna, and to publish its own magazine to showcase members' work.^[6] The group declared no manifesto and did not set out to encourage any particular style—Naturalists, Realists, and Symbolists all coexisted. The government supported their efforts and gave them a lease on public land to erect an exhibition hall. The group's symbol was Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of just causes, wisdom, and the arts—and Klimt painted his radical version in 1898.

In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. Not completed until the turn of the century, his three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and material, which was called "pornographic".^[7] Klimt had transformed traditional allegory and symbolism into a new language which was more overtly sexual, and hence more disturbing.^[7] The public outcry came from all quarters—political, aesthetic, and religious. As a result, they were not displayed on the ceiling of the Great Hall. This would be the last public commission accepted by the artist. All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945.^[8][9] His Nuda Verita (1899) defined his bid to further shake up the establishment. The starkly naked red-headed woman holds the mirror of truth, while above it is a quotation by Schiller in stylized lettering, "If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To please many is bad."^[10]

A section of the Beethoven Frieze

In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a monumental, polychromed sculpture by Max Klinger. Meant for the exhibition only, the frieze was painted directly on the walls with light materials. After the exhibition the painting was preserved, although it did not go on display until 1986. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembled the composer and Vienna Court Opera director Gustav Mahler, with whom Klimt had a respectful relationship.^[11]

During this period Klimt did not confine himself to public commissions. Beginning in the late 1890s he took annual summer holidays with the Flöge family on the shores of Attersee and painted many of his landscapes there. Klimt was largely interested in painting figures; these works constitute the only genre aside from figure-painting which seriously interested Klimt.^[12] Klimt's Attersee paintings are of a number and quality so as to merit a separate appreciation. Formally, the landscapes are characterized by the same refinement of design and emphatic patterning as the figural pieces. Deep space in the Attersee works is so efficiently flattened to a single plane, it is believed that Klimt painted them while looking through a telescope.^[13]

Golden phase and critical success[link]

The Kiss 1907–1908. Oil on canvas. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.

Klimt's 'Golden Phase' was marked by positive critical reaction and success. Many of his paintings from this period used gold leaf; the prominent use of gold can first be traced back to Pallas Athene (1898) and Judith I (1901), although the works most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907–1908). Klimt travelled little but trips to Venice and Ravenna, both famous for their beautiful mosaics, most likely inspired his gold technique and his Byzantine imagery. In 1904, he collaborated with other artists on the lavish Palais Stoclet, the home of a wealthy Belgian industrialist, which was one of the grandest monuments of the Art Nouveau age. Klimt's contributions to the dining room, including both Fulfillment and Expectation, were some of his finest decorative work, and as he publicly stated, "probably the ultimate stage of my development of ornament."^[14] Between 1907 and 1909, Klimt painted five canvases of society women wrapped in fur. His apparent love of costume is expressed in the many photographs of Flöge modeling clothing he designed.

As he worked and relaxed in his home, Klimt normally wore sandals and a long robe with no undergarments. His simple life was somewhat cloistered, devoted to his art and family and little else except the Secessionist Movement, and he avoided café society and other artists socially. Klimt's fame usually brought patrons to his door, and he could afford to be highly selective. His painting method was very deliberate and painstaking at times and he required lengthy sittings by his subjects. Though very active sexually, he kept his affairs discreet and he avoided personal scandal.

Klimt wrote little about his vision or his methods. He wrote mostly postcards to Flöge and kept no diary. In a rare writing called "Commentary on a non-existent self-portrait", he states "I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women...There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day from morning to night...Who ever wants to know something about me... ought to look carefully at my pictures."^[15]

Later life and posthumous success[link]

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which sold for a record $135 million in 2006. Neue Galerie, New York.

In 1911 his painting Death and Life received first prize in the world exhibitions in Rome. In 1915 his mother Anna died. Klimt died three years later in Vienna on February 6, 1918, having suffered a stroke and pneumonia due to the influenza epidemic of that year.^[16][17][18] He was buried at the Hietzing Cemetery in Vienna. Numerous paintings were left unfinished.

Klimt's paintings have brought some of the highest prices recorded for individual works of art. In November 2003, Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sold for $29,128,000,^[19] but that was soon eclipsed by prices paid for other Klimts.

In 2006, the 1907 portrait, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, was purchased for the Neue Galerie New York by Ronald Lauder for a reported US $135 million, surpassing Picasso's 1905 Boy With a Pipe (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million), as the highest reported price ever paid for a painting. On August 7, 2006, Christie's auction house announced it was handling the sale of the remaining four works by Klimt that were recovered by Maria Altmann and her co-heirs after their long legal battle against Austria (see Republic of Austria v. Altmann). Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II was sold at auction in November 2006 for $88 million, the third-highest priced piece of art at auction at the time.^[20] The Apple Tree I (ca. 1912) sold for $33 million, Birch Forest (1903) sold for $40.3 million,^[21] and Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter (1916) sold for $31 million. Collectively, the five restituted paintings netted over $327 million.^[22] A routine Attersee painting fetched $40.4 million at Sotheby's in November 2011.^[23]

The city of Vienna, Austria will have many special exhibitions commemorating Klimt's 150th birthday in 2012.

Klimt's Folios[link]

Das Werk Gustav Klimts[link]

The only folio set produced in Klimt's lifetime, Das Werk Gustav Klimts was initially published by H.O. Miethke (of Gallerie Miethke, Klimt's exclusive gallery in Vienna) from 1908 to 1914 in an edition of 300 and was supervised by the artist himself. Fifty images depicting Klimt's most important paintings (1893-1913) were reproduced using collotype lithography, mounted on a heavy, cream-colored wove paper with deckled edges. Thirty-one of the images (ten of which are multicolored) are printed on Chine-collé, while the remaining nineteen are incredibly high quality halftones prints. Each piece was marked with a unique signet - designed by Klimt himself - which was impressed into the wove paper in gold metallic ink. The prints were issued in groups of ten to subscribers, in unbound black paper folders embossed with the artist's name. Due to the delicate nature of collotype lithography, as well as the necessity for multicolored prints (a feat difficult to reproduce with collotypes) and Klimt's own desire for perfection, the series that was published in mid 1908 was not completed until 1914.

Each of the fifty prints were categorized among five themes:

1. Allegorical (which included multicolored prints of The Golden Knight, 1903 and The Virgin, c.1912)
2. Mythical/Biblical (Pallas Athena, 1898; Judith and The Head of Holofernes, 1901; and Danaë, c.1908)
3. Portraits (Emilie Flöge, 1902)
4. Erotic-Symbolist (Water Serpents I and II, both c.1907-08 and The Kiss, c.1908)
5. Landscapes (The Sunflower, c. 1906.)

The monochrome collotypes as well as the halftone works were printed with a variety of colored inks ranging from sepia, blue, and green.

Franz Joseph I of Austria was the first person to purchase Das Werk Gustav Klimts in 1908.

Fünfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen[link]

Fünfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen was released the year after Klimt's death and collected 25 drawings, many of which were erotic in nature and just as polarizing as his painted works. Published in Vienna in 1919 by Gilhofer & Ranschburg, the edition of 500 features twenty-five monochrome and two-color collotype reproductions nearly indistinguishable from the drawings they originated from. While the set was released a year after Klimt's death, some art historians suspect he was involved with pre-production due to the printing's meticulous nature (Klimt had overseen the production of the plates for Das Werk Gustav Klimts, making sure each one was to his exact specifications, a level of quality carried through in Fünfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen.) The first ten editions contained an original drawing by Klimt as well.

Many of the works contained in this volume depict erotic scenes of nude women, some of whom are masturbating alone or are coupled in sapphic embraces. When a number of the original drawings were exhibited to the public at Gallerie Miethke in 1910 and the International Exhibition of Prints and Drawings in Vienna in 1913, they were met by critics and viewers who were not shy about their hostility towards Klimt's contemporary perspective. There was an audience for Klimt's erotic drawings however: 15 of his drawings were selected by Viennese poet Franz Blei for his translation of Hellenistic satirist Lucian's Dialogues of the Courteseans. The book, limited to 450 copies, provided Klimt the opportunity to show these more lurid depictions of women and avoided censoring thanks to a minute group of affluent (mostly male) audience.

Gustav Klimt An Aftermath[link]

Composed in 1931 by editor Max Eisler and printed by the Austrian State Printing Office, Gustav Klimt An Aftermath was intended to complete the lifetime folio Das Werk Gustav Klimts. The folio contains 30 colored collotypes (fourteen of which are multicolored) and follows a similar structure found in Das Werk Gustav Klimts, replacing the unique Klimt-designed signets with gold-debossed plate numbers. 150 sets were produced in English, with 20 of them (Nos. I-XX) presented as a "gala edition" bound in gilt leather. The set contains detail images from previously released works (Hygeia from the University Mural Medicine, 1901; a section of the third University Mural Jurisprudence, 1903) as well as unfinished paintings (Adam and Eve; Bridal Progress.)

Gallery[link]

• 

  Philosophie 1899-1907. Destroyed 1945

• 

  Medicine 1899-1907. Destroyed 1945

• 

  Jurisprudence 1899-1907. Destroyed 1945

• 

  Judith and the Head of Holofernes, 1901. Belvedere, Vienna

• 

  Portrait of Hermine Gallia, 1904. National Gallery, London

• 

  The Three Ages of Woman, 1905, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

• 

  Danaë by Gustav Klimt, painted 1907. Private Collection, Vienna

• 

  Hope II, 1907-1908, Museum of Modern Art

• 

  Mäda Primavesi. 1912. Oil on canvas. 150 × 110 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• 

  Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park, 1912. Belvedere, Vienna

• 

  Mulher sentada, (1916)

• 

  The Friends, 1916-17.

Selected works[link]

Legacy[link]

According to the writer Frank Whitford : " Klimt of course, is an important artist - he's a very popular artist - but in terms of the history of art, he's a very unimportant artist. Although he sums up so much in his work, about the society in which he found himself - in art historical terms his effect was negligible. So he's an artist really in a cul-de-sac."^[28]

• Klimt's work had a strong influence on the paintings of Egon Schiele, whom he would collaborate with to found the Kunsthalle (Hall of Art) in 1917, to try to keep local artists from going abroad.
• National Public Radio reported on January 17, 2006 that "The Austrian National Gallery is being compelled by a national arbitration board to return five paintings by Gustav Klimt to a Los Angeles woman, the heir of a Jewish family that had its art stolen by the Nazis. The paintings are estimated to be worth at least $150 million."^[29]
• Klimt's work has spawned many reinterpretations, including the works of Slovak artist Rudolf Fila.
• Couturier John Galliano found inspiration for the Christian Dior Spring-Summer 2008 haute couture collection in Klimt's work.
• Romanian poet Sebastian Reichmann has published in 2008 a book called Mocheta lui Klimt (Klimt's Carpet). As the author says in an interview^[30] and even in one of the poems from the book, the title was inspired by a carpet from a train he often attended, carpet that reminded him of Klimt's paintings. Also, the front cover depicts an Art Nouveau-styled passage from Bucharest.
• South Korean novelist Kim Young-ha frequently refers to Klimt, particularly Judith, in his first novel I Have The Right To Destroy Myself. One of the main characters in this novel is referred to by the other characters as Judith because of her resemblance to Klimt's painting and is thus also known primarily as Judith to the reader.
• Several of Klimt's most famous works from his golden period inspired a Japanese animation title sequence for the series Elfen Lied, in which the art is recreated to fit with the series' own characters and is arranged as a montage with the song "Lilium". The opening to the anime Sound of the Sky is also largely inspired by Klimt's works.

The Painting Gold Coin[link]

Gustav Klimt and his work have been the subjects of many collector coins and medals. The most recent and prominent one is the famous 100 euro Painting Gold Coin, issued on November 5, 2003. The obverse depicts Klimt in his studio with two unfinished paintings on easels.

Klimt and His Women Gold Coin Series[link]

The Austrian Mint has begun a 5 coin gold series in 2012 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Gustav Klimt's birth. The first 50 Euro gold coin was issued on January 25, 2012 and feature a portrait of Klimt on the obverse and a portion of the painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer.^[31]

Exhibitions Commemorating Klimt's 150th Birthday in 2012[link]

In addition to the permanent exhibitions on display, the city of Vienna, Austria will celebrate the 150th birthday of Klimt with special exhibitions all over the city. Also, guided walking tours through the city will allow people to see some of the buildings where Klimt worked.

See also[link]

• Bride of the Wind (biopic)
• Klimt (film) (2006 biographical film)
• Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings
• Lost artworks
• Maria Altmann
• Republic of Austria v. Altmann (Bloch-Bauer court case)

References[link]

Sources[link]

• Hubertus Czernin Die Fälschung: Der Fall Bloch-Bauer und das Werk Gustav Klimts. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-7076-0000-9
• Carl E. Schorske "Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego" in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Vintage Books, 1981. ISBN 0-394-74478-0
• Jane Kallir, Alfred Weidinger: Gustav Klimt. In Search of the Total Artwork. Prestel, New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-4232-0
• Julio Vives Chillida. El Beso (Los Enamorados) de Gustav Klimt. Un Ensayo de Iconografía, Lulu.com, junio de 2008, ISBN 978-1-4092-0530-2.
• Gilles Neret. Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918. Taschen, 1993, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8228-5980-3
• Alfred Weidinger. Klimt. Catalogue Raisonné, Prestel, New York, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-3764-7

Anne-Marie O'Connor. The Lady in Gold, The Extraordinary Tale of the Gustav Klimt Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2012, ISBN 0-307-26564-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gustav Klimt

• "Adele's Wish" Documentary film on the Bloch-Bauer court case (Republic of Austria v. Altmann)
• Gallery of works by Gustav Klimt at Zeno.org (German)
• Biography of Gustav Klimt Biography of Gustav Klimt
• iKlimt.com
• The Bloch-Bauer court case
• Web Museum Klimt page
• Klimt Film IMDB page
• High resolution Klimt gallery
• Klimt 2012 Exhibitions in Vienna, Austria
• Klimt - Painter of Women at cosmopolis.ch

Hans Hollein, 1976

Haas-Haus in Vienna, 1985-1990

Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, 1983-1991

Abteiberg Museum, Moenchengladbach, Germany, 1972-1982)

Car Building, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany, 2011

Hans Hollein, (born March 30, 1934 in Vienna) is an Austrian architect and designer.

Hollein achieved a diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1956, then attended the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1959 and the University of California, Berkeley in 1960. He has worked for various agencies in Sweden and in America before returning to Vienna, founding his own agency in 1964.

In 1985 Hollein was awarded the Pritzker Prize.

In 1963/64 and 1966 Hollein was a guest professor in the Washington University in St. Louis. In 1967-76 he was professor in the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. Since 1976 he was professor of the "Universität für angewandte Kunst" in Vienna.

Hollein works mainly as an architect, but has also established himself as a designer for the Memphis Group and Alessi.

He also staged exhibitions, e. g. for the Biennale in Venice. In 1980 he designed the stage for a production of Arthur Schnitzler's drama Komödie der Verführung (Comedy of Seduction) at Vienna's Burgtheater.

Main works[link]

• 1964-1965 : Retti candle shop, Vienna, Austria Photo
• 1972 : Schullin Jewellery shop, Vienna
• 1972-1982 : Abteiberg Museum Mönchengladbach
• 1983 : Rauchstrasse in Berlin
• 1987-1991 : Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main
• 1990 : Haas-Haus in Vienna
• 1992-2002 : Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, St. Pölten (Austria)
• 1996-2001 : Austrian Embassy in Berlin Photos

Interbank Headquarters, Lima, Peru

• 1997-2002 : Centrum Bank in Vaduz (Principality of Liechtenstein) in collaboration with Bargetze+Partner
• 1997-2002 : Vulcania - European Centre of Vulcanology in Auvergne (France) Photos
• 2001-2003 : Albertina (Vienna) (museum)
• 2004-2008 : Hilton hotel, Vienna
• 1996-2000 : Interbank Headquarters, Lima, Peru
• 1994-2000 : Generali Media Tower Donaukanal, Vienna
• Guggenheim ('Museum im Mönchsberg'), Salzburg, Austria (planning 1989-)
• Ganztagsschule, Vienna
• 1977-1978 : Glass and Ceramics house, Teheran, Iran
• 1967-1969 : Feigen Gallery, New York
• 2006-2011 : Pezet 515, Lima

Prizes[link]

• Reynolds Memorial Award 1966 and 1984
• Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis 1983
• Pritzker Prize 1985
• Österreichisches Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft und Kunst 1990
• Ehrenmedaille der Bundeshauptstadt Wien in Gold

External links[link]

• Official site
• Pritzker Prize gallery
• ARCHIGUIDE
• The "Haas House" in Vienna a short video about Holleins building in the historical city center of Vienna

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hans Hollein

Arnulf Rainer in 1994

Rainer in a 1979 documentary by Herbert Brödl.^[1]

Arnulf Rainer (born 8 December 1929, in Baden, Austria), is an Austrian painter and is internationally renowned for his abstract informal art.^[2][3][4]

In his early years, Rainer was influenced by Surrealism. In 1950, he founded the Hundsgruppe (dog group) together with Ernst Fuchs, Arik Brauer, and Josef Mikl. After 1954, Rainer's style evolved towards Destruction of Forms, with blackenings, overpaintings, and maskings of illustrations and photographs dominating his later work. He was close to the Vienna Actionism, featuring body art and painting under drug influence. He did a lot of work on Hiroshima, after the bombing.

In 1978, he received the Great Austrian National Prize. In the same year, and in 1980, he became the Austrian representative at the Venice Biennale. From 1981 to 1995, Rainer held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna - the same place where he aborted his own studies after three days, unsatisfied.

His works are shown in the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. As the culmination of the appraisal of his work, in 1993 the Arnulf Rainer Museum opened in New York City.

Arnulf Rainer was a member of the Lord Jim Lodge^[5].

References[link]