Josef Hoffmann - Critical Reception and Posthumous Reputation

Critical Reception and Posthumous Reputation

The critical reception of Hoffmann’s oeuvre has faithfully mirrored the changing tastes and ideologies in the history of 20th-century architecture. He received favourable attention from the critics early in his career; in 1901 The Studio brought him to the attention of the English-speaking world through an illustrated article written by Fernand Khnopff. He was also given extensive coverage in the special volume The Art Revival in Austria that was published by The Studio in 1906. In France, Art et décoration published favourable reviews of his early and his mature work. Naturally his most extensive and detailed reviews are found in German-language periodicals, in particular Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration where many well-illustrated articles were devoted to his designs. His international exhibition work also helped to make his name widely known, and many distinguished contributors to the Festschrift on his 60th birthday acclaimed him as a master. Honours bestowed on him included the cross of a commander of the Légion d’honneur and the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects. The critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock in 1929 wrote, ‘In Germany as well as in Austria, Hoffmann’s manner has profoundly influenced the New Tradition’. Only three years later, however, when together with Philip Johnson he published The International Style, Hitchcock no longer even mentioned Hoffmann’s name. Siegfried Giedion in his influential Space, Time and Architecture did not do justice to Hoffmann’s oeuvre because it would not fit easily into his polemically simplified version of architectural history. Despite honours and praise on the occasions of Hoffmann’s 80th and 85th birthdays, he was virtually forgotten by the time of his death. Although his true stature and contribution were acknowledged by such masters as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Gio Ponti and Carlo Scarpa, the younger generation of architects and historians ignored him.

The process of rediscovery and reappraisal began in 1956 with a small book by Giulia Veronesi and during the 1970s gained momentum with a number of exhibitions and smaller publications. In the 1980s several monographs were published and major exhibitions held. Imitations of his style also began to occur, and replicas of his furniture, fabrics, and of some objects he had designed became commercial successes, while original pieces and drawings from his hand fetched record prices in the auction-rooms.