MODERN FRENCH and VIENNESE DECORATION 
France Is Combining Period Decoration With Art Nouveau. Vienna Shows 
The Ultra Secession Spirit in New Decorations 
GILES EDGERTON 
T O originate, to work wholly without 
tradition as though no art had ever 
existed before in the world, seems to 
be the intention of the modern school of art 
in middle Europe. Whether the expression 
is architecture, sculpture, or the making of 
furniture, fabrics, silver or porcelain, the ef¬ 
fect must be (in form, color and texture) 
new to the existing art 
world. 
It is this absolute de¬ 
termined originality that 
sometimes produces a sense 
of shock in the minds of 
those more accustomed to 
being led into art adventures 
down gently sloping paths 
of tradition and memory. 
But the whole scheme of in¬ 
terior decoration in Europe 
today is to experiment, to 
test, to evolve from the un¬ 
known and mysterious new 
expressions of beauty in 
homemaking, or what seems 
beauty to eyes attuned to 
the “new art’’ movement in 
decoration. 
Germany is unquestion¬ 
ably less handicapped in 
this new movement by de¬ 
veloped periods in architec¬ 
ture and decoration. This 
is a curious fact, when you 
realize what she has accom¬ 
plished in other intellectual 
achievements; in music and 
literature and philosophy 
you recall vast springs of in¬ 
terest that have influenced 
the drama, the scientific 
spirit throughout the mod¬ 
ern world. But in art and 
architecture you seek in 
vain for a Goethe, Schiller, 
Wagner, Kant, for a Haupt¬ 
mann, or Strauss! 
There were, to be sure, 
Boecklin and Stoeck and Klimpt, but these 
were men rather of naive fantasy with fresh 
poetical minds, who found quaint adven¬ 
tures into strange art lands. They could not 
well be imitated. Their art was not so much 
calculated to inspire thought, as to create an 
emotional reaction to their creation. 
It is not so many years, a decade or two, 
since Europe decided upon self-determina¬ 
tion in art. It is easy to remember those 
famous art slogans that came to us from 
Paris and Munich—“Art for art’s sake”, 
“Art without tradition”, “Art a law unto 
itself”. And yet, of course, in time, these 
gentle lawless creators became organized and 
in Munich they were the Secession men and 
in France Art Nouveau. But 
even though grouped they 
still recognized no authority. 
They expected to achieve a 
fully developed art in one 
generation, and yet with 
their furious determination 
to be original, they were con¬ 
trolled by one point of view, 
to dominate art with flow¬ 
ing lines. One could be 
original, but not individual. 
And perhaps because of this 
very limitation the new art 
swept over Europe, domi¬ 
nating architecture, sculp¬ 
ture and the crafts, admit¬ 
ting no other period of art 
into companionship. The 
past was ignored and there 
was no truth in any present 
art except the often spine¬ 
less fluidity of Secession and 
Art Nouveau. In France 
Lalique was its prophet, in 
Germany and Austria there 
were several in command, 
Hofmann, Pechi, Reinhardt, 
dominating. 
In no way should this 
movement be associated with 
the modernist movement of 
today, the Cubists, the Fu¬ 
turists, the Primitives. 
These schools are all a re¬ 
action from the conventional 
early periods of art, not a 
development of European 
Secessionists. Today, espe¬ 
cially in America, we seek 
An entrance hall in latest Viennese style, furnished and decorated by Joseph 
Urban. Chairs are enamelled tea color with frieze of silver scrolls; the rug 
black and white velvet. The center of the decorative motif is a painting by 
Gustav Klimpt, famous for delicacy of form and freshness of color. The 
silver vases and tea sets by Hofmann 
