May 21, 2009 - Sale 2181

Sale 2181 - Lot 3

Price Realized: $ 2,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
KOLOMAN MOSER (1869-1918) V. KUNSTAUSSTELLUNG DER VEREINIGUNG BILDENDER KÜNSTLER ÖSTERREICHS. 1899.
15 3/4x11 3/4 inches, 40x29 1/2 cm. Druck v. Albert Berger, Vienna.
Condition A / A-: minor creases in margins. Paper.
Kolomon Moser was a key figure in the Austrian Secession. A founding member of the movement, he was also a professor at Vienna's School of Decorative Arts. Together with Josef Hoffman he co-founded the Weiner Werkstatte, and he was a versatile and prolific artist in his own right. Book design, graphic design, interior design, jewelry, furniture, silverware, fashion and ceramics were just some of the fields in which he worked. Here, advertising the fifth exhibition of the Secession, Moser depicts a golden angel. This exhibition was dedicated to primarily French drawings and graphic arts, including the works of Puvis de Chavannes, Renoir, Pissarro, and Vallotton. The fluid, allegorical image is a turning point between Art Nouveau and the more abstract and geometrical precision that would come to symbolize the Secession. The handling of the muse's hair is typical of the swirls that typified French Art Nouveau, but the typography is stylized in a purely Austrian manner. The poster was printed in several sizes and colors. Vienna's Albertina Museum has five different variants: the only text variations occur in the bottom margin (where on some copies the second year of the Secession magazine Ver Sarcum is advertised) and in the location of the printer's information, which appears in some copies in the left margin, and in other copies in the right margin. The image was also on the cover of Ver Sacrum. This small format was likely a flyer for the exhibition. Moser p. 33, Kossatz p. 104, Denscher, p. 30 (all var).