The Establishment of the Wiener Werksttte - Essay Example

Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser wanted the company of visual artists to show the unity between artists that did more than just make art but make things that were of use to others.

Adolf Loos was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, also active during the same period as Moser and Hoffman. Loos became famous for his catchphrase "ornament and crime," which he meant to mean that he disowned the style of the Vienna Secession. He felt that for a culture to progress creatively, it needed to rid itself of ornamentation on everyday items, stating that it was a crime when architects and designers continued the use of ornaments in their works.

Loos' ideas were at odds with the Wiener Werkstätte, whose existence was to encourage the Vienna Succession and the use of ornament within the architectural works. Loos was set against combining art with everyday objects because he felt the two did not belong together. Art should be art, function, and consumer goods should be what they were.