MAK: Franz von Zülow - Paper
Exhibition: Franz von Zülow - Paper
Wed, 27.11.2013 – Sun, 11.05.2014
MAK Works on Paper Room
On the occasion of his 130th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his death, the MAK has dedicated to the artist and “master of diversity” Franz von Zülow (15 March 1883 – 26 February 1963) an exhibition that provides a first-ever look at his creative output.
Inspired by the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, the Vienna Secession, and the Wiener Werkstätte, and under the lifelong influence of rural impressions, Franz von Zülow gave rise to a comprehensive oeuvre characterized by an unmistakably individual style. It was quite early on that, in addition to painting and graphic art, he discovered the broad field of arts and crafts. Alongside watercolors and oil paintings, therefore, his output also encompassed designs for fabrics and ceramics as well as furniture decoration and frescos.
Zülow’s Monatshefte, hand-painted periodicals that he published in very small print runs and to which figures including Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele subscribed, are featured as clear examples of his Jugendstil-derived decorative planar art, which he combined with folk art influences. There is also a selection examples documenting Franz von Zülow’ artistic development; despite his turn to applied art, Zülow is by no means to be categorized simply as an applied artist, since he spent his entire life oscillating around the very core of art as manifested in the quality of the decorative.
Curator Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of Library and Works on Paper Collection
