“Poetry of the Ornament” at the Leopold Museum

14.11.2024

First comprehensive presentation of the artistic and cultural treasure of the Backhausen Archive

Around 250 exhibits, created by visionary designers, architects and artists, including Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Else Unger, Dagobert Peche and My Ullmann, afford insights into the fascinating textile art of Viennese Modernism.

In the context of the exhibition Poetry of the Ornament, the Leopold Museum presents a comprehensive selection of exhibits from the archive of the tradition-steeped company Joh. Backhausen & Söhne for the first time. The holdings, made up of around 11,000 objects, was given to the museum in 2023 as a permanent loan. The mixed lot reflects the company’s fascinating history and documents the textile decorations of countless interiors from the 1870s into the 1960s. The exhibition’s curator Ursula Oswald-Graf emphasizes the significant role played by the Kiesling family in the archive’s preservation: “We owe it to Dr. Louise Kiesling (1957–2022) and her family that the Backhausen Archive was placed under monument protection in 2022. It is thanks to her that these holdings from over 100 years of Austrian textile production, which are of eminent historical, art historical and textile historical significance, could be digitalized and appraised, and are now accessible for further research at their new home, the Leopold Museum.”

The exhibition Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archive sheds light on individual production stages, from the designs via patterns to the use of the fabrics. The period of time covered by the presentation starts with a design from 1878 and ends with a pattern designed by Josef Hoffmann in 1907, which was re-issued in 1961 for the architect Hermann Czech, marking the beginning of a new appreciation and rediscovery of Viennese Jugendstil.

The Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger underscores the eminent artistic importance of the imaginative products manufactured by Joh. Backhausen & Söhne: “Without the many ties and connections between artists from various fields in Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th century, which yielded a fruitful art production, today’s federal capital would not have advanced to the rank of Europe’s cultural capital. Thanks to their technologically and artistically innovative products, ranging from upholstery and curtains to carpets, which made it the prime address for experimental textile design, Backhausen became a vital part of the cultural phenomenon of ‘Vienna around 1900’. The importance of Backhausen’s textile art in the context of the design vocabularies of Historicism, Jugendstil and Art Deco cannot be overestimated.”

Diverse Motifs and Splendid Colors

Owing to the juxtaposition of historical black-and-white photographs of extraordinary interiors with original fabric samples, visitors are able to receive an impression of the richness of motifs and splendid colors of the textiles, and to relive the synergy of space, decor and furnishings. As the leading textile manufacturers in Austria, Backhausen worked closely with the protagonists of Viennese Modernism. According to the exhibition’s curator Aline Marion Steinwender, this led to a highly successful cooperation, both artistically and financially: “Backhausen’s lucrative ties to the Wiener Werkstätte were reflected in the growing number of designers working for the company. Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann used their teaching activities at the School of Arts and Crafts to solicit new talents for the numerous commissions, among them their students Else Unger, Carl Witzmann and Fritz Dietl. Moreover, Backhausen participated in Hoffmann and Moser’s exhibition activities: The company realized designs for the Paris World Fair in 1900, for the Vienna Kunstschau exhibition in 1908, and for the 1914 Deutsche Werkbundausstellung in Cologne.”

From Emigrant to Court Purveyor – The Success Story of a Tradition-Steeped Company

The company’s founder Jakob Backhausen, who in 1811 emigrated from the Rhineland to Vienna, established the company 175 years ago, in 1849. The producers of decorative fabrics and upholstery Backhausen, who were among the most tradition-steeped manufacturers in Austria, provided high-quality textiles for prestigious splendid buildings from the Gründerzeit era, including eminent edifices along the Ringstraße, such as the parliament, the Vienna State Opera and the Burgtheater. The salesrooms were located opposite the opera at the Heinrichshof built by Theophil von Hansen. The main lines of production of the company, which in 1888 was awarded the title of Imperial-Royal Purveyor to the Court, were premium fashion fabrics, textiles for upholstery and curtains, as well as damasks, brocades and carpets made from silk and wool.

Palaces and Villas

In the early 20th century, the decoration of private palaces, villas and apartments in cooperation with the Wiener Werkstätte and the Secessionists provided the company’s most lucrative commissions. Among the buildings decorated by Backhausen are Josef Hoffmann’s architectural icons, including Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the Sanatorium Purkersdorf, the Villa Skywa-Primavesi and the Villa Knips. The Viennese company further provided textiles for summer residences, such as the country house of the Primavesi family, apartments like that of the Gallia family, as well as Cabaret Fledermaus, a meeting place of the protagonists of the Viennese art scene.

Two World Wars as a Caesura

World War I represented not just an economic caesura. In the 1920s, Backhausen continued its efforts to enter into a dialogue with contemporary artists and to reactivate international contacts. However, the company failed to win profitable commissions until they switched their emphasis to war products: the very machines that once wove fabrics with the most impressive designs of Viennese Modernism now produced flysheets and blankets. The Backhausen salesrooms at the Heinrichshof were destroyed by fire during World War II. Thankfully, the company’s archive, which had been stored at Kaiserstraße 12 in Vienna’s 7th district, survived both World Wars almost entirely unscathed. After regaining the factory in Hoheneich in 1946, the family began the company’s reconstruction. For their sales outlet in Vienna from 1951, the manufacturers chose Kärntnerstraße 33, the very site where Cabaret Fledermaus had been located from 1907 to 1913.

The End of the Family-Run Company

Throughout the following decades, Backhausen focused on exports. The company provided decorations for various prestigious buildings around the world, for instance Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 1986. Prints and fabric samples from earlier production years were rediscovered at the company’s premises on Kaiserstraße, which make up today’s archive, while a private museum was established at the salesrooms in Vienna’s city center, affording insights into the hundreds of precious designs. However, the company’s diverse economic and artistic efforts were not crowned with success, causing Backhausen to file for bankruptcy in 2012. This spelled the end of the family-run company.

Securing the Company’s Survival: The Legacy of Dr. Louise Kiesling

In 2014, Dr. Louise Kiesling acquired the Backhausen company. Owing to her passion and perseverance, as Aline Marion Steinwender explains, the survival of the tradition-steeped company was initially secured: “Louise Kiesling was determined to preserve Backhausen’s cultural heritage for subsequent generations and to restore the profitability of the manufacturers, now operating under the company name Backhausen GmbH. Following Dr. Kiesling’s unexpected passing, the company Backhausen finally shut down in 2023. That the archive survived is owed primarily to her recognition of its inestimable value. This might also explain how Backhausen managed to write Austrian textile history: The company’s efforts to interweave tradition and avant-garde were likely the reason why it was tasked with providing the textile decorations for the most prestigious buildings in Vienna, and why it was able to significantly shape Viennese Modernism in Austria and abroad.”

Exhibition Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue in German and English, published with Walther and Franz König publishers in Cologne and featuring essays by Ursula Oswald-Graf, Aline Marion Steinwender and Christian Witt-Döring, as well as a foreword by Hans-Peter Wipplinger.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony of the exhibition Poetry of the Ornament, hosted by Leopold Museum Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger in the presence of the Leopold Museum’s board members Josef Ostermayer, Sonja Hammerschmid and Saskia Leopold, as well as the museum’s Managing Director Moritz Stipsicz, was attended by more than 600 guests, among them the exhibition’s curators Ursula Oswald-Graf and Aline Marion Steinwender, lenders Andreas Kiesling (AMEEA) and Hemma Kiesling, Herbert and Reinhard Backhausen, Felix Porsche (CEO of Alpha Rail Holding), Oliver Porsche (supervisory board PAG, PSE and VW), Michel Piëch (Porsche Holding), Stefan Piëch (CEO Your Family Entertainment) and his wife Christina Piëch, Georg Hagenauer, Stefan Wenckheim (chairman of Wenckheim Holding) and Melanie Wenckheim (Porsche Piëch Holding and supervisory board ŠKODA AUTO), Karl-Heinz Moser (CEO of CONFIDA), Werner Egger (CEO of CONFIDA) and Rita Egger, architect Artur Grisanti-Mausbach (Royal College of Art), Ferdinand Ahorner (CEO of Stealth Startup I Angel Investor) and Nicola Ahorner, collector Caroline Mortimer, attorney Ernst Ploil and Gabriele Ploil (University of Applied Arts Vienna), architect Felix Gmeiner, Serge Zerkin (owner and managing director of Bitnur), collector Waltraud Leopold, the artists Gerda Leopold, Peter Kogler and Luis Casanova-Sorolla, Nikolas Andriopoulos (Emis Modegalerie), Georg and Theresa Hagenauer, Günther Horvath (supervisory board VW) with his wife Eva Horvath, Getrud Aichem-Degreif (German Embassy Vienna), Ali Khabir (Allianz Österreich), Andreas Maurer (ORF) and Wendy Maurer-Menzel (Ballet Academy of the Vienna State Opera), art historians Agnes Husslein (director of the Heidi Horten Collection), Rolf H. Johannsen (Heidi Horten Collection), Christian Witt-Döring and Michael Huey, Rainer Metzger and Daniela Gregori, Gerbert and Marianne Frodl, Johann Kräftner, Markus Kristan, Thomas Zaunschirm, Sonja Zsolnai-Kasztler (MEDTRUST), Sabina Baumgartner-Parzer (MedUni Wien), Andreas Fleischmann (CEO of Raiffeisen Continuum) and Edith Fleischmann, Albin Hahn (chairman of Manner Private Foundation), Georg Pölzl (COP Leopold Museum and chairman of the board) and Eveline Pölzl, Josef Offner (CEO of Zeilinger Metallwaren & Metallbau) and Stephanie Offner, and many others.

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