Cooper Hewitt says...
Josef Zotti, a Wiener Moderne designer and architect, sought to create work not burdened by historical references that was true to the materials and weaving techniques used.
Zotti studied for four years at the woodworking school in Bolzano, then moved to Vienna, where he entered the Kunstgewerbeschule (the School of Arts and Crafts) at age 23. There, he studied architecture and interior design under Josef Hoffmann, whose work exemplifies the Jugendstil. Zotti internalized Hoffmann’s belief in the total work of art, and went on to work as an architect and a designer of textiles, furniture, and other objects. From 1909 through the early 1930s, he was employed by Prag-Rudniker Korbwaren Fabrikation in Vienna. The series of wicker furniture he designed there is his most well-known work. [1]
In 1913, the Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art named both Hoffmann and Zotti among a group of artists who “designed printed silks and linens, not only for the Wiener Werkstaette, but also for other firms, including Backhausen und Söhne.” Their work prompted Amelia Sarah Levetus, the Viennese correspondent for the British publication, to write that “the printing of silks, introduced last year by the Wiener Werkstaette, has progressed. The firm has been successful not only in the designs, but in getting hold of the right men to print them, and, thanks to its efforts, another old Vienna industry has been rescued from oblivion. The designs are in every case original, unmistakably modern Viennese; their beauty and refinement are undeniable, as are the workmanship and the quality of the silk.” [2]
[1] Christopher Long, “Review,” Studies in the Decorative Arts 6 no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1999): 116.
[2] A. S. Levetus, “Austrian Architecture and Decoration,” The Studio Year-book of Decorative Art: A Review of the Latest Developments in the Artistic Construction Decoration and Furnishing of the House (London: The Studio Ltd., 1913): 188.
