The Use of Text in the "Vienna Kineticism"

Between the avant-garde and the tradition of Vienna Moderne

Abstract

This study attempts to shed new light on the design history of Austria, by exploring the activities and the artistic tendency of the “Vienna Kineticism” (1920-1924). The majority of artists had been students of the progressive art pedagogue Franz Cizek, and the calligrapher Rudolf von Larisch, at the Arts and Crafts School in Vienna. Their graphic works with texts reveal their conections to both the contemporary avant-garde and the tradition of Vienna Moderne around 1900.