Tracing Wiener Werkstätte textiles: Viennese textiles from the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection

Abstract

“This book presents new research and archival findings on the textile and fashion designs of the Wiener Werkstätte movement (1903-1932). Textile specialists, art and design historians offer insights into the most important collections and archives in Austria, Switzerland, and the US. The publication explores works by lesser-known female textile artists; the influence of Eastern European folk art, Japanese patterns, and ornamentation textbooks on textile designs; applications in fashion, interior design, film, theater; and marketing strategies used to enter new markets in the US. It includes numerous illustrations of textile samples, many drawn from the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection (George Washington University Museum / Textile Museum), one of the largest collections of Wiener Werkstätte fabrics in the US. New research and archival findings on the Wiener Werkstätte textile design International project by the University of Neuchâtel, the George Washington University Museum / Textile Museum (exhibition from July 8 to November 5, 2023), and the University of Applied Arts Vienna Contributions by Susan Brown / Caitlin Condell, Rebecca Houze, Janis Staggs, and others.”

Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I. WIENER WERKSTÄTTE TEXTILES AND THEIR ARCHIVES -- The Wiener Werkstätte Collection within the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection: From Austria to the United States via Switzerland -- Transgressive Patterns at the MAK: Transnational and Transmedial Dimensions in the Wiener Werkstätte's Artistic Textiles and Fashion -- Beautiful Specimens: Wiener Werkstätte Pattern Designs at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum -- II. INTEREST IN THE PATTERNS IN FOLK ART IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY -- Appropriating the Peasant: Wiener Werkstätte Fashions before World War I -- Cultural Translation and Artistic Reform: Mileva Roller's and Rosalia Rothansl's Collections at the University of Applied Arts Vienna -- An Embroidered Love Letter: Oskar Kokoschka, the Wiener Werkstätte, and a Skirt for Lilith Lang -- III. INNOVATIVE FEMALE ARTISTS OF THE WIENER WERKSTÄTTE -- Hilda Schmid-Jesser: Career, Interrupted, Reinvented -- Bright Colors, Stylized Flowers: Notes on Asunta, a Fabric Pattern by Maria Likarz-Strauss -- IV. THE WIENER WERKSTAETTE OF AMERICA -- The Reception of Wiener Werkstätte Fabrics in the United States in the Early 1920s -- V. MEMORIES OF HALF A CENTURY OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY -- Research, Scholarship, and Exploration: Toward the Wiener Werkstätte at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna -- APPENDIX -- Image Credits -- Index of Names -- Selective Bibliography -- Authors