Koloman Moser Biography
Koloman Moser known as Kolo (Vienna, 30 March 1868 – Vienna, 18 October 1918) was an Austrian painter, designer and decorator. He was among the founders of the Viennese secession and carried out much of his refined activity in the field of applied arts, dedicating himself in particular to the creation of fabrics, furniture, stained glass windows, posters, furnishing accessories and jewellery. Born in Vienna in 1868, he was the son of the administrator of the Theresianum, an aristocratic academy full of parks, riding stables and also craft workshops of all kinds. Free to frequent these environments he thus develops his natural versatility with various crafts and materials. His father would have liked to introduce him to commerce, but the young man secretly took drawing lessons. In 1885 he entered the Academy of Art. He began to get involved in publishing, especially with the German publisher Schreiber. In 1895 he collaborated with the publisher Martin Gerlach and met Klimt through him. He was among the founders of the Club of Seven (Siebener Club), which was then admitted to the Künstlerhaus, the largest association of Austrian artists. The Viennese Secession finds him among its adherents, together with Gustav Klimt, Hoffmann, Helmer and others (1897). In 1898 he took part in the birth of Ver Sacrum and began his collaboration with Hoffmann. The following year his contacts with the Böch porcelain factory began. He dedicated himself to the design of glass, porcelain, furniture, fabrics, book bindings and embroidery. At the end of 1901 he dealt with the theater for the first time. In 1902 he participated in the secession exhibition dedicated to Beethoven, with a mosaic and some stained glass windows. Between 1906 and 1907 he created mosaics and stained glass windows for the church of Chiesa di San Leopoldo in Vienna designed by Otto Wagner. In 1903, together with Josef Hoffmann, he founded the Wiener Werkstätte whose program of activities was presented in the periodical Hohe Warte of which Moser himself had been co-editor since 1904. Also in 1904 he received the important commission for the stained glass windows of the am hospital church Steinhof. After years of intense collaboration, in 1907 he suddenly left the Werkstätte due to differences of opinion. He furnished the "Klimt" room for the Kunstschau 1908 and also dedicated himself to works for the theater. He also dedicated himself to painting and exhibited his first solo exhibition at the Mietke gallery in Vienna in 1912. In the following years he continued to work in scenography, but with little success and much criticism. In 1913 he was often in contact with Hodler and exhibited in Budapest, Rome, Düsseldorf and Mannheim. The following year he exhibited scenic art in Zurich. In 1916 he felt the first symptoms of laryngeal cancer which killed him on 18 October 1918. In 1920 the Wolfrum publishing house inaugurated a posthumous exhibition of his works.
