Erwin Puchinger

Erwin Puchinger (7 July 1875, Vienna, Austria – 17 May 1944) was a Viennese painter, illustrator, industrial designer and graphic artist. He was an influential figure in Viennese art in the fin-de-siecle. Puchinger was a part of the Austrian Jugendstil and Gesamtkunstwerk (total art) movements, which sought to erase the boundaries between fine art and applied art. Puchinger worked in London, Prague and Paris as well as Vienna and collaborated with other major figures in Viennese art and design such as Ernst and Gustav Klimt and Otto Prutscher. He was a respected art professor at the Graphic Arts Institute, where he taught for more than thirty years. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

Training and influences Erwin Puchinger was born in Vienna on 7 July 1875. He came from a prominent family of Austrian officials. In 1891 and 1892, Puchinger began evening drawing classes at the newly opened (1888) Graphic Arts and Research Institute (der Graphischen Lehr und Versuchsanstelt). This was an experimental institute that trained professionals in design and the graphic arts. Next, Puchinger studied at the School of Arts and Crafts (Later the School of Applied Art), which was founded in 1867 as part of the new Austrian Museum of Science and Industry (Kunstgewerbeschule des Osterreichen de Museums fur Industrie und Kunst). Puchinger first studied with Ludwig Minnigerode (1847–1930) and then with the famous muralist and art professor Franz von Matsch (1861–1942), who worked on decorative art with the brothers Gustav (1862–1918) and Ernst Klimt (1864–1892), they had a decorating company that did elaborate murals for wealthy clients. Puchinger's earliest known works are landscape and architectural drawings of 1892 and 1893, which were already of a professional quality.

The Viennese Secession When Puchinger was in the last years of his studies, a group of young architects and artists, Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffman and Joseph Maria Olbrich, rejected the opulent and decadent style of the day and the variety of architectural styles of the Ringstrasse. They were Influenced by classical Greece and Rome and wanted to create buildings that were fresh and modern, where decoration was part of the design, rather than superfluous. Together with a group of young and innovative artists, including Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Max Kurzweil (1867–1916), they broke away from the old academy, the Association of Austrian Artists that had held its exhibitions in the old Kunstlerhaus. They created a new union known as the Union of Austrian Artists (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs) that is known as the Vienna Secession (das Wien Sezission). Because Erwin Puchinger's friend and classmate Kolo Moser was one of the Secessionists and the fact that they shared the same influences, his work is quite similar to that of Moser in style and execution. What Puchinger, Moser, Klimt, Wagner, Olbrich and Hoffmann were working toward was a unification of the arts, to erase the division between fine and applied art and to create projects where everything shared the same principles of design and execution, a total approach to art known in Vienna as Gesamtkunstwerk.

The Exposition Universelle In the year 1900, Erwin Puchinger completed his studies. He had made sketching trips to Capri and Rome, where he absorbed the classical influences. At the Exposition Universelle, the Paris Worlds Fair, of 1900, one of his large decorative paintings was given great prominence in the huge Austrian pavilion. He received accolades in the French, Austrian and British press. The first issue of the famous Viennese design magazine Das Interieur featured his work from Paris.

Collections The Albertina Museum, Vienna Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles Imperial War Museum, London Victoria & Albert Museum, London Wolfsonian Museum, Florida International University, Miami Austrian National Library, Vienna

Associations and memberships Das Hagenbund, Vienna Vienna Workshop (Wiener Werkstätte ) Vienna Secession (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs, das Sezession) Austrian Artist’s Society (Gesellschaft bildender Künstler Österreichs, Künstlerhaus)