(Joseph Hoffmann, ‘barrel chair’, 1906)

(Joseph Hoffmann, ‘Keller 2 Seater Sofa’, 1909)

(Joseph Hoffmann, ‘Keller Armchair’, 1909)

(Joseph Hoffmann, ‘Cerused barrel armchair’, 1900)

(Joseph Hoffmann, ‘Kubus armchair’, 1918)

Josef Hoffmann, (1870-1935). European Architect and designer he was the leading member of Wiener Secession (1897) a radical anti-historicist movement and Wiener Werkstätte (1903) a workshop who’s purpose was to design art which would be accessible to everyone. Hoffmann’s inspirations included the flamboyant curves and detail of Art Nouveau, the British Arts & Craft movement, the cubistic abstraction from the industrial age, the Bauhaus school of design modernist architecture, Mackintosh and the Glasgow Schools of art design and architecture. His geometric motifs influenced the Art Deco style of the 1920s. Hoffmann furniture used primarily leather and solid wood as its building materials. Plastics are not introduced into furniture design until 1917, aluminium tubular steel and plywood pieces until the 1920s.