Modernism Before Mad Men

Spending time at Vienna's MAK or Museum of Applied Arts is one of my favorite things to do.  We live steps away and on Tuesday evenings the admission is free.  No better way to spend some "me" time than wandering the exhibit halls filled with furniture, decorative arts, textiles, glass, china, silver and paper.  No yawning people!  Come visit and I'll make a tour of MAK's decorative and applied arts titillating for you!

The newly curated Wien 1900 exhibit consists of three galleries showcasing the continuum of the modernist/secessionist or "Jungendstil" movement in Vienna prior to WWII (1890-1938).  Today, a guided tour brought more clarity to the movement and the complexities of interpersonal relationships between the architects, artists, and designers that put Vienna in the forefront of socio-cultural modernism from Adolf Loos to Josef Hoffman, Otto Wagner to Gustav Klimt.  It's a real Peyton Place of a story, disrupted by WWI and the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire through the rise of anti-semitism and Hitler's horror, so I'll save the dramatic details until we get together for our tour.  For now, a few snaps of the pieces that caught my eye.

Internet Image MAK