This very well-made book starts with the chapters Orientation for a New Modernity, New Consumer Worlds, followed by Otto Wagner’s pages with interesting essays, drawings and photos on architecture, furniture, objects and lights.

In chapter 3 Modern Lifestyles, Overcoming Historicism II, Christian Witt-Dörring describes the Union of Austrian Artists Vienna Secession showing graphic designs, textile designs, furniture, glass and ceramics as Elisabeth Klamper sketches in Commission: Identity About Hoffmann’s and Loos’s Patrons the social habitat with portraits and paintings, while Matthias Boeckl pictures the role and job description of the Modern Architect in Form follows? with superb graphics and photos on architecture. With drawings and designs on a lorgnette, vase, flatware, interiors and more the pages on The Gesamtkunstwerk show how new design was introduced in daily life.
Ernst Strouhal wrote the text All Art is Ornament, the concepts on a clean separation between craft and art, followed by more essays, photos on interiors and furniture.

Loaded with quality photos throughout the book with works from the exposition as designs for gowns, glassware by Hoffman, Oskar Strnad, Adolf Loos, floor plans and art works.
In chapter 5 Recourses 1960 until today, Friedrich Kurrent describes the lives and deaths of Loos and Hoffmann and My Generation with wonderful graphical illustrations. The last essays on The Applied as Concept – the emancipation of artwork from function and matter, in search of new forms, images and narratives and Systems Instead of Genius – ways of modernism into the present describing how architects and designers now use their special skills to shape public opinion with regard to social goals and thus influence the framework conditions for architecture and product design.

Next to some strange hyphenations in the English, one strange translation mistake in the chapeter Subsitute Materials and Associated Technologies from the Factory Products Collection (Technisches Museum Wien) is the caption under a photo of a container of fish scales for fabricating artificial glass pearls by translating the wrong word for Fisch-Schuppen as Fischuppen into fish soup. See article Fish Beads>
 
A book all should study to understand this important time in design history to understand our times and a great catalogue to the exposition WAYS TO MODERNISM: Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, and Their Impact from 17/12/2014 through 19/4/2015.
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Angela van der Burght

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