Dagobert Peche and the Wiener Werkstatte

"With contributions by Hanna Egger, Gabriele Fabiankowitsch, Rainald Franz, Waltraud Neuwirth and Nina Claudia Trauth, Sabine Plakolm-Forsthuber, Ernst Ploil, Anne-Katrin Rossberg, August Ruhs, Nikolaus Schaffer, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Nancy J. Troy, Angela Volker, and Christian Witt-Doring.". "Dagobert Peche (1887-1923) was one of the key figures of the Austrian arts and crafts movement. Along with Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, Peche determined the character of the Wiener Werkstatte with his designs. Hoffmann, who first hired Peche as his assistant but was later strongly influenced by him, wrote after Peche's death in 1923: "Dagobert Peche was Austria's greatest genius in ornamentation since the days of the Baroque...All of Germany has experienced a new stylistic epoch thanks to Peche's designs." The contribution made by Peche to decorative arts is now being given the critical attention it deserves, especially against the backdrop of postmodernism. Peche's extravagant use of materials, imaginative eclecticism, formal boldness, courageous playfulness, and decisive instinct are all indicative of his creative brillance.". "This illustrated book aims to expand the understanding of Austrian arts and crafts at the turn of the twentieth century and to give Peche's work - which ranges from interior and exhibition design to furniture, fashion and textile design, ceramics, glass, metalwork, jewelry, and wallpaper - its proper due in this rich context."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.