Josef Hoffmann was born in Brtnice in Moravia in 1870. He started studying architecture with Carl Freiherr von Hasenauer in 1892 and from 1894 onwards with Otto Wagner at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He received the Prize of Rome for his thesis and embarked upon a study trip to Italy with Joseph Maria Olbrich. Hoffmann was one of the leading lights of the Viennese art scene at the turn of the 20th century. In 1895 Hoffmann’s circle of friends – which included Koloman Moser, Joseph Maria Olbrich and Max Kurzweil – became the “Club of Seven”, an avant-garde forum for experimentation and development of new artistic ideas. Hoffmann was also one of the founding members of the Viennese Secession in 1897. At the age of 29, he assumed a teaching post at the School for Applied Arts in Vienna. Up until his retirement in 1936, he lectured in the departments of architecture, metalwork, enamel works and applied arts. He founded the Wiener Werkstätte together with Kolo Moser and Fritz Waerndorfer in 1903. In the context of his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk (“total art work”), Hoffman produced designs for all branches of the applied arts and was active as both an architect and a designer throughout his life. His œuvre includes numerous examples of furniture design and building projects such as the Purkersdorf Sanatorium near Vienna and the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, whose interiors were entirely decorated and furnished by the Wiener Werkstätte. Hoffmann was also able to achieve considerable international acclaim with his designs for furniture, glassware, vases, jewellery and his exhibition designs. He is renowned for his rather austere, clear and geometrical designs. In 1950 he received the "Großer Österreichische Staatspreis für Architektur" (Great Austrian State Prize for Architecture) and in the following year he got a honorary doctorate from the University of Technology in Vienna. Josef Hoffmann died on May 7, 1956, at the age of eighty-five in Vienna.
Josef Hoffmann
1870 Brtnice, Czech Republic - 1956 Vienna
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36
Champagne bowl with cupids
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69
Footed Bowl
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63
Vase