Staal met bedrukte zijde, dessin Aussee 1911 - 1914

This is ‘Staal met bedrukte zijde, dessin Aussee’, or ‘Steel with printed silk, design Aussee’, made by the Wiener Werkstätte, probably sometime around the early 1900s. This artwork seems to be four fabric swatches mounted on a piece of card, each with a different floral pattern. The palette is muted—a smoky gray, a dusty rose, a deep teal, and a golden yellow. I wonder, how did the makers decide on these colour combinations? Did they make endless variations, tweaking the hues until they found the right mood? I imagine them experimenting with the printing process, trying to capture the right balance between the delicate silk and bold design. Each swatch feels like a little world, a contained explosion of color and pattern. You can feel the conversation with art nouveau, but there is a cleanliness and practicality that speaks to early modernism. The Wiener Werkstätte, like the Bauhaus, were so influential in thinking about how art and design could come together. And of course, they inspire so many artists and designers today.