Josef Hoffmann 1870 - 1956

Austrian born Josef Hoffmann not only completed his architectural degree under Otto Wagner, the famous head of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, but started his practical career by joining Wagner's studio. He opened his own office in 1898, and became extremely interested in the linear dimension of the Glasgow School and the Mackintosh influences.

Together with Gustav Klimt and their revolutionary art nouveaux contemporaries, they founded the 'Vienna Secession', an organization intent on promoting the developing Art Nouveau genre of the period.

Constantly pushing for a renaissance of abstract arts forms and architectural purity, he founded the Wiener Werkstatte together with his two architect associates Kolman Moser and Joseph Maria Olbrich.