Went to see an exhibition of the work of Wiener Werkstätte, at Millesgården. (A workshop “dedicated to the artistic production of utilitarian items in a wide range of media, including metalwork, leatherwork, bookbinding, woodworking, ceramics, postcards and graphic art, and jewelry”, in Wien from 1903 to 1932.)

The exhibition was full of luxurious, beautiful objects, designed and made for a very different time. Their style must have felt radical back then. But I can see why they went bankrupt.

The story about the cooperative workshop and their ideology of Gesamtkunstwerk and raising design and craftsmanship to be equal with art was interesting. I couldn’t make sense of their actual design principles, though.

The first parts of the exhibition present them as valuing function strictly above ornamentation – furniture with pared-down lines, much black and white, logos and graphical design with pure geometric forms only.

But then the bar of the Fledermaus cabaret – reconstructed in its full glory – is almost psychedelic in comparison.

There’s an austere black-and-white masquerade gown, next to a wallpaper embroidery design that is all full of extra everything.

Pretty, but also confusing and thus somehow unsatisfying.