15 December 1999-26 March 2000

MAK Works on Paper Room, MAK - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Stubenring 5, A-1010 Vienna

One hundred years after this exhibition, the MAK wants to position this fertile antagonism within a contemporary context. Based on originals, objects and blow-ups of views of the Winter Exhibition rooms, the various arts and crafts protagonists' heterogeneous impact is subjected to a re-examination. The organizers of the Winter Exhibition did not content themselves with a mere juxtaposition of the various items but adapted complete interiors like dining rooms, bed rooms and vestibules which were integrated into the former lecture hall of the museum for example. While Leopold M¸ller's "Vestibule for a Country Houseî illustrates the position of historicism, Siegmund Jarays simple "Room for a married workerî already articulates the spirit of Art Nouveau.

The contemporary commentaries were as divergent as the items shown. While Hermann Bahr, one of the most important mouthpieces of Viennese modernity, harbored certain doubts in regard to the influence of the exhibition on the visitors-"Was it good or bad? Did it help to educate or did it spoil the visitors? Did the visitors experience a pure feeling of art or just a fashionable whim?î-Hevesi's statement ran as follows: "The impact on the visitors surpassed all expectations. In a certain sense, it exceeded the desired results since the new had actually become fashionable overnight, while the intentions of the museum were clearly more emphatic and had not aimed at an ephemeral fashion but rather at creating a new general taste and arts and crafts industry [Ö]. By and large, the Austrian Museum has given up its modifying and assisting function and taken on a creative role again.î

Today, at the turn of another century, both the model character and the formation of good taste are under discussion again as programmatic functions of the MAK. The major exhibition "Art and Industry: The Broader View-Rise and Decline of a Museum Notionî opening on 31 May 2000 will pursue this symbiotic interplay between foundational aims and continuous re-orientation.

Fig: Koloman Moser, Kalender für das Jahr 1900
photo by Paulus Rainer/MAK