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Object name: table
Title: Table from the “Die Zeit” Dispatch Office
Production:
design: Otto Wagner, Vienna, 1902
execution: anonymous, Vienna, 1902

Period/Style/School: Jugendstil
Material / Technique: Buchenholz, dunkelbraun gebeizt; Messingrohr, vernickelt; Eisenrohr
Measurements:
height: 75 cm
width: 180 cm
depth: 89 cm

Inventory number: H 3196
Acquisition: auction (1994)
Description: 1902 saw the newspaper Die Zeit, the worldview of which was quite friendly towards Viennese Modernism, open its telegraph office. Located on Vienna’s exclusive Kärntner Straße, it was used both as a flagship store and for the display of breaking news. The design of this office was entrusted to Otto Wagner, the father of Viennese Modernism. Wagner’s so-called Nutzstil [Utilitarian Style] stipulated that the form was to always develop out of the construction, with the materials employed corresponding with the creation’s intended use. For this telegraph office, two tables were made. Their design was derived from the trestle tables common during the Renaissance: Wagner translated this type into a modern variant, reducing it to the most necessary supporting and resting structural elements. The frame elements, made from highgloss, nickel-plated iron pipes, could be reduced to the minimum in terms of their dimensions, while also facilitating the reflection and, hence, the continuation of the surrounding space. This quality ensured that the space at hand would be opposed by a minimum of material. (Witt-Dörring, Christian)
Department: Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Collection: furniture and woodwork collection
Exhibitions:
Otto Wagner, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, 13/11/2019 to 16/03/2020
Von Arts and Crafts zum Bauhaus. Kunst und Design - eine neue Einheit!, Bröhan-Museum. Landesmuseum für Jugendstil, Art Deco und Funktionalismus, 24/01/2019 to 01/04/2019
New Acquisition: Otto Wagner. Desk from the "Depeschenbüro" of the "ZEIT", MAK – Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, 01/04/1995 to 20/08/1995
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