Koloman Moser

Around 1900, the Viennese art scene was a hive of creative activity, and at its centre was one of the most versatile artists of the age: Koloman Moser (1868-1918). He spent his childhood haunting the workshops of the school where his father worked, and the techniques that he mastered there were to give him the perfect basis for the arts and crafts movement that he helped to found and foster. Having trained at the Kunstgewerbeschule, where he was later to become a teacher, he broke away from the Establishment and in 1897 co-founded the Vienna Secession, whose first President was Gustav Klimt. Moser had begun his career with fashion drawings and book illustrations, but soon he was working in ceramics, furniture, jewelry, fabrics and all aspects of interior design. In 1903, together with his friend and colleague Josef Hoffmann, he founded the Wiener Werkstatte, whose workshops were to set trends that spread far beyond the boundaries of Vienna. As a teacher, artist and craftsman, Moser had an immense influence on the tastes of his time, and his talents ranged from stained glass to the design of stage sets and postage stamps.
He devoted the last years of his life to painting, and in recent times his reputation in this field too has steadily grown. Maria Rennhofer's book provides a comprehensive account not only of Moser's life and work, but also of the flourishing artistic environment which he did so much to create and shape.