Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1908.
In the relatively short history of what has been designated 'graphic art' there have been many styles and movements, very often running in tandem with specific fine art and decorative eras. Much of the work can be linked with commercial aspects, particularly through advertising which has often had a close connection with graphic art. However, despite the practical considerations of the commercial world it is sometimes surprising how much decorative art and even forms of surface pattern either crept in or were considered an integral part of many posters and advertising campaigns, particularly during the period that these pieces were produced.
Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1908.
The six illustrations shown in this article were all produced by the Austrian designer Emanuel Josef Margold within the first decade of the twentieth century. Margold worked in a number of disciplines ranging from printed and woven textiles, embroidery, wallpaper and graphics and illustration. He was also known as an architect, interior designer and worked within the ceramics industry. He was involved in both the Darmstadt Art Colony as well as the Wiener Werkstatte where he for a time worked within Josef Hoffmann's studio as his assistant.
Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1908.
In some respects, the decorative work shown on these six examples seems more important than the event or commercial aspect they were meant to be promoting. They have the genuine appearance of decorative panels and could well have been used within an interior setting. Although certainly reflecting the generalised Wiener Werkstatte decorative style, Margold didn't move to Darmstadt until 1911 after the production of these pieces, they are also a reflection of his personalised style which can be seen covering the range of work he produced in textiles and in wallpaper design.
Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1908.
Although the text used on all the graphic pieces shown here is certainly centralised and obvious, it seems in many respects to be nearly superfluous. Much of the contemporary poster work produced in Vienna during this period, and certainly that produced by the Vienna Werkstatte, used text as another form of decorative effect. Letters were often exaggerated or came to reflect aspects of the pattern work and decoration that was found immediately around them. This made the text seem much more a part of the overall composition, even though often deliberately separated by distinctive panels or a boxed framework. The balance of the composition was obviously paramount and the integration of the text reflected this.
Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1907.
Although not all poster and commercial graphic work during this period was as integrated and as balanced as Margold's, it is still very much a reflection of the decorative period and particularly that as seen in Vienna during the last few years of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century. Comparisons can easily be made between the fine art work of Gustav Klimt for example. Although Klimt has been designated by posterity as a fine artist, he is to many probably one of the most accomplished decorative artists of any period and is certainly as influential to many decorative and surface pattern designers today as he was during his creative lifetime. In some respects, he himself wanted to incorporate the two sectors of art, both decorative and fine, into one all-encompassing style that would reflect the strengths and positive aspects of both sides of the same discipline. In other words to bring an end to the forced partition of art into fine and decoration.
Illustration: Emanuel Josef Margold. Graphic artwork, 1910.
That these elements can be seen, in a more modest setting, in the graphic work of Margold, says much about the possibilities of the incorporation of decoration within the contemporary world. It is also perhaps a tragedy that much of the modernist movement that followed both Klimt and this particular period, firmly and to a large extent permanently, turned their backs on most forms of decoration and certainly within the format of graphic art. The decorative input within any form of design setting is often seen as superfluous at best, a crime at worst. After all, it was the Austrian architect Adolf Loos who wrote his famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, statement in 1908 Ornament and Crime, in other words ornament was a crime and should therefore be treated as such.
Further reading links:
Wiener Werkstatte: 1903-1932 (Special Edition)
Wiener Werkstatte: Design in Vienna 1903-1932
Textiles of the Wiener Werkstatte: 1910-1932
Postcards of the Wiener Werkstatte
Viennese Design and the Wiener Werkstatte
Josef Hoffmann: Interiors, 1902-1913
Turn-of-the-Century Viennese Patterns and Designs (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture
Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918 (Basic Art)
Gustav Klimt: Art Nouveau Visionary
Gustav Klimt: The Beethoven Frieze: And the Controversy Over the Freedom of Art
Josef Hoffmann: Autobiography
Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays. (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought. Translation Series)
