Gesamtkunstwerk 5 - Timothy J Barnes Design - Tim Barnes

Josef Hoffmann and the emergence of 

Gesamtkunstwerk in 20th century architecture 

Timothy J Barnes 

May 2009 

Abstract: The development of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk is traced from its origins with 

Richard Wagner’s approach to music-theater, through its most important architectural protagonist: 

Josef Hoffmann. The lasting ideas of the total work of art in architecture are discussed, and 

evidence of their continuing importance is presented. 

Figure 1: Illustration for the 1876 premier of Richard Wagner’s 

The concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or 

total work of art, was originated in the 

1850s by the Bavarian composer Richard 

Wagner. In searching for a more authentic 

and satisfying form of music-drama, he 

contrasted the original Greek plays of 

Aeschylus and Euripides with the evolution 

of Western European opera, which had its 

antecedents also in Greek drama. Richard 

Wagner observed that opera had become 

mannered and superficial: an entertainment 

rather than a profound expression of hu- 

man experience and truth through art. In 

his desire to re-create a more holistic form, 

the composer defined a multi-dimensional 

approach to opera that encompassed all 

aspects of the production: the leitmotif to express the character of individual actors or plot elements; a new 

late-Romantic style of harmony and orchestration; set and costume design; the libretto and production direc- 

tions. He wished to leave nothing to chance—to minimize the opportunity for his art to be mis-represented or 

demeaned by insensitive production values. In fact the term Gesamtkunstwerk was not Wagner’s first choice: 

he would instead use terms like Gesamtvolkskunst, implying a connection to the people, or even das 

Kunstwerk des Gesamtvolkes—the work of art of an entire people 1 . This distinction seems relevant as the 

architectural realization of the total work of art was in fact a collaboration between the members of an artistic 

community, loosely organized in the Vienna Workshop and Vienna Secession. Wagner speaks of “artistic 

man” thus: 

Die Walküre, Bayreuth Festpielhaus. 

Tim Barnes / ARH 641 / Anne-Catrin Schultz / Spring 2009 / Page 1 of 14

“Artistic man can be wholly satisfied only by the unification of all forms of art in the service of the 

common artistic endeavor; any fragmentation of his artistic sensibilities limits his freedom, prevents 

him from being fully that which he is capable of being.” 2 

The musical and theatrical revolution instituted by the composer Wagner was to be repeated in architecture 

some fifty years later, when the Viennese architect Otto Wagner became dissatisfied with the Beaux Arts ap- 

proach that was de rigeur at the time. He felt, along with many others, that the values of Classical and Ren- 

aissance culture needed to be rethought and redeveloped in response to changes in social, cultural, and in- 

dustrial conditions. 

Otto Wagner’s most famous student was the 

Moravian-born architect and designer Josef Hoff- 

mann, whose passion for the pursuit of beauty led him 

to an all-encompassing approach that embraced ar- 

chitecture, art, furniture, silverware, lighting, and inte- 

rior decoration. In addition to his highly developed 

aesthetic sensibilities, Hoffmann was also charming 

and persuasive, and it seems that his personal and 

social skills were very helpful as he worked with the 

team of collaborators who together delivered the ex- 

perience of the Gesamtkunstwerk. 

In seeking to understand this movement and Hoffmann’s role in it, we must look at the conditions and ideas 

that were current at the turn of the century in Vienna specifically, and more generally across Europe. We will 

also consider the creation and products of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna 

Workshop, through which many of the artistic ideas of the time were given a voice. We will also briefly exam- 

ine the views of one important critic of the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk: the architect and essayist Adolf Loos. 

Finally we will look for evidence of the continuing importance of the ideas of the total work of art in modern 

architecture. 

Questioning received artistic values 

Otto Wagner began his career as an exponent of the then-traditional Beaux Arts style. However, in his work 

with the Viennese subway, he became vividly aware of the impact of the industrial revolution on manufactur- 

ing and construction techniques, and was persuaded that a new style was needed. This was also consistent 

with a secularization of society and a turn-of-the-century optimism about the future. His contribution was less 

to the idea of the total work of art, but more in his willingness to question the historical precedents, and to 

search for new, authentic methods and expressions of architecture. 

Figure 2:: Josef Hoffmann: 

Bowl, silver, approx. 1919. 


Josef Hoffmann came to Vienna in 1893, and studied first 

under one of the ‘Ringstrasse’ architects Carl Freiherr von 

Hasenauer. His origins were therefore also in the Beaux Arts 

tradition. Working with Otto Wagner following von Ha- 

senauer’s death, Hoffmann ’s talents led to his winning a Prix 

de Rome, with the concomitant opportunity to travel and 

study classical architecture. There was a broad interest in 

questioning the received values in art and architecture, and 

so in 1895 Hoffmann became a founding member of the 

“Severner’s Club” that was formed to discuss new trends in 

art. This was a predecessor of the better-known Vienna Se- 

cession, created in 1897 by a group of artists including Gus- 

tav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Maria Olbrich, Max Kurtz- 

weil and Josef Hoffmann. Their primary goal was to explore 

the limits of art outside the received traditions of the 19th 

century. Their slogan, printed on the Olbrich-designed Se- 

cession building was “to every age its art, and to art its 

freedom”. 3 

Following his return from his studies, Hoffmann taught at the 

University of Applied Arts Vienna from 1899. 4 This, in addi- 

tion to his participation in the Secession, brought him into 

contact with many of the leading artists of the day, and was 

no doubt a contributor to the breadth of his vision and artistic expression. During this period, Hoffmann also 

came into contact with the work of the English Arts and Crafts movement, from William Morris to John 

Ruskin, and in particular with the Scottish Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who developed a close relationship 

with the Secession, and whose work was displayed in the Secession exhibitions 5 . 

It appears however that Hoffmann was not satisfied with the traditionalist elements of the Arts and Crafts 

movement: his work is more formal and austere, with a greater focus on materiality than was common in Arts 

and Crafts designs. He did however adopt a central principle of the Arts and Crafts movement, which was 

the celebration of the skills of the artist and the artisan as essential elements of the design. Hoffmann’s inter- 

est, however, was in taking materials and exploring their potential for beauty in the context of the most mod- 

ern manufacturing techniques, not simply as the craftwork of a few expert artisans. Where the Arts and 

Crafts movement looks back to traditional building techniques, Hoffmann looks forward to modern building 

techniques, but with a similar sense of the beautiful and the personal. Examining his designs for silverware, 

or lighting fixtures 6 , we can see the attention to detail and the love of the craft, but there is no sense of creat- 

ing individual, unique pieces. His designs are capable of mass-production (subject of course to the economic 

constraints of the market within which he operated). 

Figure 3: Josef Hoffmann: 

Vase, silver, 1909. 


Figure 4: Josef Hoffmann: Decorative border 

for a composition by d’Albert, published in 

Ver Sacrum, 1901. 

The Total Work of Art 

The idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk in architecture and crafts- 

manship seems to have come both from this sense of taking 

advantage of the intersection of materials with industrial 

processes on the one hand, and with his own pervasive sen- 

sitivity to beauty on the other. Hoffmann was extremely sensi- 

tive to his surroundings, and on one occasion is said to have 

abandoned a favorite cafe because the proprietor would not 

remove a fake palm tree. 7 He believed profoundly in the im- 

portance of beauty, and his pervasive enthusiasm led him to 

design as many aspects of the buildings and environments in 

which he was involved as possible. In some sense therefore 

Hoffmann came to his own understanding of the idea of the 

total work of art, driven less by philosophy or the influence of 

Richard Wagner, and more by the demands of his own na- 


Palais Stoclet exterior view 


ture. Certainly Hoffmann was aware of, and involved with music, which features in his designs and in the 

work published in the artistic journal Ver Sacrum. 

So we can see that the development of the idea of the total work of art in architecture and design was the 

result of several things: the growing dissatisfaction with received artistic values; the development of new in- 

dustrialized manufacturing techniques; the artistic ferment of fin-de-siècle Vienna; and not least the specific 

vision and drive of a very talented architect and designer: Josef Hoffmann. The combination of Hoffmann’s 

vision with the artistic abilities of collaborators like Gustav Klimt has given us buildings of outstanding quality 

that demonstrate the reach of the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal—for example Palais Stoclet. 

Palais Stoclet 

This large and luxurious house is perhaps the most fully developed example of the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal. 

Naturally such a building is rare, because of its very high cost, and the challenge of bringing together world- 

class artists and designers at one time and place. 


Palais Stoclet courtyard 

Originally intended for a site near Vienna, 

the building was eventually sited in Brus- 

sels. This, combined with the intensity of 

Hoffmann’s vision, made for a testing 

project plan. Every element was to be in 

harmony ‘like the organs of a living be- 

ing’. Each room was completely assem- 

bled in Vienna in order to understand the 

effect of the integration of all the ele- 

ments, and then dismantled and 

shipped to Brussels. This provided the 

design team with the ability to accurately 

assess the impact of the total work of art 

created through their collaboration. The 

building was ultimately the work of many 

members of the Secession and the 

Werkstätte, including Kolo Moser, Carl 

Otto Czeschka, Leopold Forstner, Lud- 

wig Heinrich Jungnickel, Bertold Löffler, 

Michael Powolny, and of course Gustav 

Klimt. 8 


Even before entering the building, we can see the effect of Hoffman’s comprehensive vision. The materials 

are characteristic of the era: fine quality marble on the surface and a regular pattern of fenestration. Examin- 

ing the courtyard (figure 6) we see the careful attention paid to the courtyard’s surface, and the orderly array 

of planters with their carefully manicured trees. Accompanying the sense of completeness and order is an 

almost painterly sense of stillness. The courtyard appears more as a composition than as a usable space. 

Moving into the building, the living room (figure 7) begins to show the extent of Hoffmann’s command of 

space and texture. The marble columns match the leather furniture, and the lighting is carefully arranged to fit 

in with the organization of the furniture. The careful orchestration of space and tone creates a very formal 

space, within which one can only admire the completeness of the architect’s vision. But it is equally hard to 

imagine re-organizing the space into something less formal, more intimate. Hoffmann’s vision is very precise, 


Palais Stoclet living room 


and controls not only the space, but also the mood of the space. In my view there is a fine line between the 

architect’s role as facilitator of living space and the prescription of behavior within the space. Hoffmann 

comes close to the line in this space and in the design of the dining room (figure 8). 

The dining room is perhaps the most famous space in the Palais Stoclet, with its friezes by Gustav Klimt. In 

this room we can best see the realization of the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal. This is not the work of a single, 

autocratic designer, but an inspired collaboration between a number of great artists, working with the highly 

skilled artisans of the Wiener Werkstätte. It is rare to see a truly synergistic collaboration between two great 

artists whose skills and interests overlap to such a degree. 


Palais Stoclet dining room. 


Returning for a moment to the musical 

precedent of Richard Wagner, we see a 

different approach where the artistic vision 

was defined to a very high degree by the 

composer, leaving the creation of an indi- 

vidual production or role in the hands of 

others. Such an approach was much 

more hierarchical than the collaboration 

between Hoffmann and Klimt, although 

the work of the craftspeople who realized 

the objects in the house are more akin to 

the implementers of Richard Wagner’s 

operas. Richard Wagner did engage col- 

laborators in his productions: for example 

for the 1876 production of Der Ring des 

Nibelungen he asked a different Josef 

Hoffmann—a Viennese landscape archi- 

tect—to produce sketches for the produc- 

tion, and Carl Döpler created costume 

designs. 9 

Figure 9 shows a detail of the dining room: 

we can see the careful integration be- 

tween the friezes and the architectural 

elements of column, wall, ceiling and built-in furniture. The textures of Klimt’s backgrounds seem to fit beauti- 

fully with the texture of the marble, and the proportions create a balanced overall composition. 

The Palais Stoclet was an expensive building for a wealthy client. It enabled Hoffmann and his collaborators 

to test their vision of a new integration between architecture and the arts with few constraints. The result is 

not only beautiful, but delivers a powerful emotional impact as a result of the seamless integration of its many 

elements. Jacques Stoclet summed it up thus in a memorial speech given in 1955: 

“To be able to give free flight to his imagination and his talent as regards the realization of this en- 

semble, in such a way as to create a perfect unity out of the smallest details of the architecture of 

the house and garden, the iron-work, the means of illumination, the furniture and flooring, the car- 

pets and even the silverware, and, moreover, using the most costly materials, represents for an 

architect, even for a genius like Professor Hoffmann, an ideal, a dream which one cannot realize 

more than once in a lifetime.” 10 


Palais Stoclet dining room detail. 


Purkersdorf Sanatorium 

In contrast to the Palais Stoclet, with its affluent client, the Purkersdorf Sanatorium was built to a budget, and 

consequently the design solutions are much more modest. More modest, but not less thorough. Still we can 

see architecture, interior design, lighting and furniture integrated into a consistent whole. 

The exterior is much more modest: no marble, no exuberant tower, and no fancy decoration of the corners of 

the building (figure 10). But still a beautiful, balanced composition that testifies to Hoffmann’s abilities as an 

architect. 


Purkersdorf Sanatorium exterior view. 

A comparison of the dining rooms of Palais Stoclet (figure 8) and the Purkersdorf Sanatorium (figure 11) is 

interesting. Both are highly formal, symmetrical, and designed in every detail. However, the marble, tile and 

friezes of Palais Stoclet here give way to a simple floor, painted walls, and an overhead beam grid that pro- 

vides not only a structural solution, but also a sense of rhythm and organization to the space. This rhythm is 

reflected in many aspects of the room’s design: the regular arrangement of windows and doors; the alcoves 

and sideboards; the pictures on the walls, and the the lights that preside over the diners. Even the chairs 

(also designed by Hoffmann) carry a simple, regular, and restful aesthetic. 


One of Hoffmann’s collaborators in this building was Kolo- 

man Moser, whose chair for the entrance lobby is shown in 

figure 12. Its design is perhaps less subtle than we might 

expect from Hoffmann, but it still fits well into the architecture 

of the building with its strong, simple lines, and reflection of 

the black and white materials of the entrance lobby floor. 

Furniture in the patient rooms was even simpler: planar 

forms in white. 


Purkersdorf Sanatorium dining room 

Hoffmann achieved consistency through the building by the 

use of square geometries: both practical and distinctive. 

Sarnitz describes it thus: “The design of the building is based 

on a square, which assumes here the character of a leitmo- 

tif—apparent in the floor tiles’ black-and-white quadratic pat- 

Figure 12: Koloman Moser: 

Purkersdorf Sanatorium chair. 


tern, the use of quadratic basic forms for the exposed concrete joists of the walls and ceilings, and in the 

design of the windows and doors. Even the ground plan of the ground floor level is composed of two 

squares. The strict axial and symmetrical form of the structure is intensified by the square-shaped windows 

and tiles.” 11 Of course the leitmotif is also strongly associated with Richard Wagner, who would use charac- 

teristic instrumentation and melodic fragments to tie his works together and to orient the listener to the na- 

ture of events and emotions at particular points in his operas. 

An influential critic 

Despite its obvious success in the hands of great artists and designers, the Gesamtkunstwerk approach was 

not without its detractors. Of these perhaps the most articulate was the architect and essayist Adolf Loos, 

whose “parable of the poor rich man” 12 points to what he sees as a fundamental weakness of the holistic 

approach. In essence his criticism is that if you design everything, there is no scope for the owner to evolve, 

to acquire, or to enjoy anything beyond the totality provided by the architect. Such an approach is therefore 

stultifying and restrictive, and ultimately fails to respond to the organic nature of life. 

As is the case with many of Loos’ arguments, he is right in the extreme case. But of course most ideas fail 

when taken to extremes. Looking again at Palais Stoclet, it is easy to see Loos’ point. One could hardly dare 

to enter the formal dining room unless accompanied by someone of equal size and shape to preserve the 

symmetry. Certainly the idea of hanging a new picture, or taking out one of these so carefully positioned by 

Figure 13: Philip Johnson: 

Glass House. 


Hoffmann is not tenable. In the living room, it is inconceivable that one might rearrange the furniture to make 

a more comfortable space. And where could we put the barbeque on that so-beautiful courtyard? 

The issue of flexibility in the use of space is a perpetual challenge to the designer. Loos saw the total work of 

art in its extreme form as a negative (and this position is consistent with his more famous paper Ornament 

and Crime). Wherever the architecture imposes itself as a kind of completeness, or final statement, there is a 

risk that flexibility is lost, and the space can impose its personality too strongly on the user. One modern ex- 

ample of the same conundrum is seen in Philip Johnson’s Glass House (figure 13): the careful proportions, 

clean planes, and fastidious organization of space create a sense of completeness that is not so far distant 

from the gestalt of a Gesamtkunstwerk environment. Johnson’s solution was to build a separate art gallery at 

the bottom of the garden (even partly underground!) so he could keep his house clear of distractions. This 

example is curious in that the building is in other respects a clear implementation of the ideas Loos espoused 

in his paper Ornament and Crime, 

published in 1908, that we now 

know as Modernism. 

In fact, Hoffmann did not con- 

tinue to pursue the Ge- 

samtkunstwerk ideal much be- 

yond the buildings we have ex- 

amined. His later buildings have 

a greater affinity with a Neo- 

Classical approach. Consider for 

example the Ast residence, 

1909-11 (figure 14). The interior 

still shows the beautiful propor- 

tions and understated planar 

intersections of his earlier work, 

but the level of decoration is 

much reduced. Like Palais Sto- 

clet, this house was built with an 

essentially unlimited budget, yet 

there is a much greater level of 

restraint in the development of 

the interior, creating a more 

flexible and livable space. 


Ast Residence: Living Room.. 


Conclusion 

Hoffmann was by all accounts a very successful architect and designer. His influence would undoubtedly 

have been felt simply because of his talent and energy. However, the time in which he lived gives great im- 

portance to his abilities, because he was able to show par excellence that great architecture was possible 

outside the bounds of the received traditions of the Beaux Arts. He left not only a number of great buildings, 

but also over 1000 designs for objects small and large that we recognize as being of outstanding beauty. His 

special ability to range across multiple domains, coupled with a willingness to collaborate with other artists 

has created a synthesis and synergy that is compelling to this day. 

His influence is by no means over: many architects since Hoffmann’s time have been moved to create furni- 

ture and interior design to complement their most important projects. Frank Lloyd Wright and Green and 

Greene emphasized a completely managed experience of architecture and space, implementing designs that 

included architecture, extreme attention to interior and exterior detailing; furniture and fenestration. Alvar 

Aalto routinely designed furniture to match his buildings. More recent examples include Norman Foster’s 

Hong Kong Shanghai Bank in which he delivered furniture design to match the high-technology architectural 

approach, and coming from the product design perspective, Philippe Starck’s forays into interior architecture. 

It is important however to remember that Hoffmann did not operate in isolation: as the architect he may have 

had a greater say in the design of his buildings than did his collaborators, but as we have seen, the number 

and quality of his collaborators was a powerful driver of the all-encompassing Gesamtkunstwerk experience. 

We now stand at a point where architects are searching for a viable alternative to the traditions of modern- 

ism, coupled with new environmental and industrial concerns that mandate change. The emergence of a 

new school of 21st Century architecture to match the quality and influence of Hoffmann and his Viennese 

collaborators is still ahead of us, but perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the work of this artistic 

and architectural titan. 


References 

1 The Origins of Expressionism and the Notion of Gesamtkunstwerk. Peter Vergo. Twentieth Century Literary 

Criticism, Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 142. Detroit: Gale, 2003. p11-19. 

2 Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft, in W. Golther (ed.), Richard Wagner: Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen 

in zehn Banden, Berlin and Leipzig, III, p. 105 (translated by Peter Vergo). 

3 Vienna Secession. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Secession. 

4 Josef Hoffmann. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Hoffmann 

5 Landmarks of Twentieth Century Design, Kathryn B.Hiesinger, George H. Marcus, Abbeville Press, 

1993, p15. 

6 Silverware illustrations are from Josef Hoffmann, In the Realm of Beauty, August Sarnitz, Taschen 2007. 

7 Josef Hoffmann: In the Realm of Beauty. August Sarnitz, Taschen 2007, p7. 

8 Art in Vienna 1898-1918, Peter Vergo, Phaidon 1975, p145. 

9 Description of the 1876 Bayreuth Festspielhaus premier of Der Ring des Nibelungen, 

www.wagneroperas.com/index1876ring.html. 

10 Allocution de M. Jacques Stoclet, séance académique...en homage au professeur Hoffmann et à 

la mémoire de Monsieur Stoclet, given at the Palais Stoclet, Brussels, 4 October 1955. 

11 Josef Hoffmann: In the realm of Beauty, August Sarnitz, Taschen 2007, p 48. 

12 Art in Vienna 1898-1918, Peter Vergo, Phaidon 1975, p 164.

Gesamtkunstwerk 5 - Timothy J Barnes Design - Tim Barnes

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?