BRTNICE, CZECH REPUBLIC.-With “Design in Progress”, the MAK starts an exhibition series scheduled to extend over several years which will be shown at the house where Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956) was born in Brtnice, Czechia. Hoffmann, a co-founder of the Vienna Secession (Association of Austrian Visual Artists), of the Wiener Werkstätte and the Austrian Werkbund, decisively informed Viennese Modernist architecture and design. The exhibition gives a first-time survey of the significance of draft sketches and drawing in the architecture and design of Josef Hoffmann.

In 1992 already, the MAK had been present at Hoffmann’s birthplace with a show entitled “Der barocke Hoffmann” (Hoffmann the Baroquist) which traced his work as architect and designer back to its roots. With “Design in Progress” the MAK now continues this cooperation, following the restoration of the house and its reopening as the Muzeum Josefa Hoffmanna. In searching ways of communicating ideas by drawing, Josef Hoffmann’s design style went through several stages: from a disciple of Otto Wagner who unfolds large-scale architectural fantasies, to the Secessionist creating linear drawings in Art Noveau style, and to the Modernist using the drawing to notate ideas. In this purist stage – the time when the Wiener Werkstätte was founded and the Purkersdorf Sanatorium (1903–1905) and the Brussels Stoclet Palace (1905–1911) were built –, Hoffmann took to drawing on graph paper. His designs became simpler and more economical. The art drawing is superseded by the design drawing which became formative for the production of the Wiener Werkstätte. This transformation is traced in terms of a comparison of design drawing and final product, documented by photos and models.

The exhibition presents original designs from all stages of Hoffmann’s work: early architectural visions from the school of Wagner, or sketches from the Italian journey that Hoffmann made 1895/96, as well as Secessionist design drafts and drawings from the early period of the Wiener Werkstätte and the inter-war era. The recognition that Hoffmann’s drawing talent received is illustrated in reproductions of his designs in publications such as “Der Architekt” or “Ver Sacrum”.

Another focus of the show is on the execution of the designs. Early on, the Wiener Werkstätte employed specialist artisans, with external manufacturers being called in for furniture, ceramic and glass products. Drawings from the WW Archive and the MAK Works on Paper Collection evidence the close relationship between Hoffmann and his clients who often were both financers and customers of the Wiener Werkstätte. The show features designs for art-industrial products manufactured by Vienna-based companies such Josef Böck, Ludwig Lobmeyr or Johann Backhausen, as well as architectural designs. Moreover, it traces motifs and subjects that keep recurring in Hoffmann’s work of drawing and in his many different designs.

Historically and as a potential for the future, there are interesting connections and overlaps between Czechia and Austria in the fields of architecture, design, and applied arts, which the MAK wants to explore, both on a research and an educational level. Josef Hoffmann, who was rooted both in Brtnice and Vienna, is important for the MAK for several reasons: from 1899, he was a teacher at the arts and crafts school originally associated with the museum, and until into the 1930s he worked for the house as an exhibition designer. In 1930, the museum purchased from Hoffmann a large body of drawings. Since 1955, the MAK has been in possession of the Wiener Werkstätte Archives which, among other things, comprises some 5,500 design drawings from Hoffmann’s hand. Thus the MAK keeps the largest collection worldwide of furniture, objects and designs by Hoffmann. The holdings were presented in exhibitions in Vienna (1987), St. Petersburg (1989), and New York (1992).

The initiative for the MAK’s activities at Hoffmann’s birthplace came from Jan Tabor und Peter Noever and dates back to a joint information trip of Czechia in the early 1990s. With the exhibition series at the Muzeum Josefa Hoffmanna, the MAK supports the effort to bring Josef Hoffmann as an important modern architect and designer back to public awareness in the Czech Republic.