Recent scholarship found that roughly a quarter of the nearly 200 women who worked for the Wiener Werkstätte were Jewish, and this show is the first to build an exhibition around that fact. Wieselthier's ceramic heads and Rix-Ueno's textile patterns are the anchors, but the pleasure is in the lesser-known names filling out the range. If you love Vienna 1900 and only know Hoffmann and Moser, catch this before it closes mid-November.
What to expect
A thematic hang across ceramics, textiles, fashion, metalwork, and works on paper rather than a chronological march. Objects are small and detailed, so expect case-based viewing and a fair amount of leaning in. It is a mid-sized exhibition you can do carefully in about an hour, and the final weeks tend to draw people who kept meaning to go.
Good to know
- Take the 6 to 96th Street or the Q to 96th Street, then walk over to Fifth Avenue
- The museum is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so plan around that
- This one closes mid-November, so do not save it for the end of the month
- The museum runs free-admission days on a set weekly schedule; check before you go
- Elevator service reaches all gallery floors
- Strong pick for design, ceramics, and textile people specifically
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Common questions
How many objects are in the show?
More than 200, by roughly thirty Jewish women artists and designers associated with the Wiener Werkstätte.
Who were Wieselthier and Rix-Ueno?
Vally Wieselthier was a prolific ceramicist and Felice Rix-Ueno a textile designer; both have had lasting influence in their fields.
What was the Wiener Werkstätte?
A Viennese design collective and commercial enterprise founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and Fritz Waerndorfer, active until 1932.
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