A recent surge of interest in Jewish patronage during the golden years of Vienna has led to the question; Would modernism in Vienna have developed in the same fashion had Jewish patrons not been involved? This book uniquely treats Jewish identification within Viennese modernism as a matter of Jews active fashioning of a new language to convey their aims of emancipation along with their claims of cultural authority.In this provocative reexamination of the roots of Viennese modernism; Elana Shapira analyzes the central role of Jewish businessmen; professionals; and writers in the evolution of the cityrsquo;s architecture and design from the 1860s to the 1910s. According to Shapira; these patrons negotiated their relationship with their non-Jewish surroundings and clarified their position within Viennese society by inscribing Jewish elements into the buildings; interiors; furniture; and design objects that they financed; produced; and co-designed. In the first book to investigate the cultural contributions of the banker Eduard Todesco; the steel tycoon Karl Wittgenstein; the textile industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer; the author Peter Altenberg; the tailor Leopold Goldman; and many others; Shapira reconsiders theories identifying the crisis of Jewish assimilation as a primary creative stimulus for the Jewish contribution to Viennese modernism. Instead; she argues that creative tensions between Jews and non-Jewsmdash;patrons and designers who cooperated and arranged well-choreographed social encounters with one anothermdash;offer more convincing explanations for the formation of a new semantics of modern Viennese architecture and design than do theories based on assimilation.This thoroughly researched and richly illustrated book will interest scholars and students of Jewish studies; Vienna and Viennese culture; and modernism.
#1444023 in eBooks 2015-11-30 2015-11-30File Name: B018R7W3VG
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