Loetz vase Josef Hoffmann

Josef Hoffmann was one of the most important designers of Viennese Jugendstil; his strength of design had a decisive influence on the Viennese art scene from 1900 to 1935. In 1911, the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (ÖMKI) commissioned Hoffmann with the realization of several drafts of glass objects for their winter exhibition. The technically advanced pieces were executed by Johann Loetz Witwe Klostermuhle.

Straight lines and reduction have always been the main motifs in Hoffmann's designs, and this creed can also be felt here. The reduced representation of bellflowers with foliage, together with a strictly geometric pattern, exactly reflect his formal language. The glass was produced in a technically challenging way. The colorless glass body of the vase was first undercoated with opal and then overlaid with ruby-red glass. In many working steps the ruby-red overlay was etched away with acid, a process in which it is particularly difficult to depict straight lines and geometric patterns.

The size and color combination make our vase an outstanding object of this creative period and an important contemporary witness of the time before the Werkbund exhibition in Cologne in 1914.