The Foreign Designer: Antoinette Krasnik and the Wiener Moderne

Abstract

The book presents for the first time the outstanding career of Krasnik, exploring her different "personas", from a young woman seeking artistic freedom to an emancipated, affirmed and self-conscious artist pushing the limits of (self-)representative boundaries, to a member of "high-society" consciously moving away from a professional career. Taking the formative influence of the context of the Viennese cultural climate around 1900 and the Kunstgewerbeschule as the starting point, this monograph analyses Antoinette Krasnik's pioneering role in redefining the decorative arts. By exploring the historical meaning of woman artists' oeuvre as a case study for establishing a link between decorative arts, the Gesamtkunstwerk, and a new approach to design manufacture, the book contributes to a number of disciplines, including art history, cultural studies, Central European studies, feminist art and design histories, German studies and gender studies.