Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, Contrasting Modernist Architects

VIENNA — Take two bedrooms, each designed in the early 1900s by a different ambitious young architect for an apartment here. Both are modestly sized and furnished with a bed, dressing table, wardrobe and night tables. But the similarities end there.

One room was the work of the architect Josef Hoffmann, who designed it in 1902 for his clients Johannes and Johanna Salzer in warm shades of brown, with beautifully made wooden furniture sharing the geometric motifs of the carpet and curtains. The other was devised as a dreamy spectacle by Mr. Hoffmann’s archrival, Adolf Loos, in 1903 for himself and his wife, Lina. The bed, draped with a white silk sheet, appears to float over an opulent white fur rug, and white linen curtains mask the walls. The only color that is not white is the azure blue of the carpet.

Despite their differences, both rooms would have been recognized at the time as looking unmistakably Modern. They have now been reconstructed as the centerpieces of “Ways to Modernism: Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos and Their Impact,” an exhibition that runs through April 19 at MAK, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art in Vienna, and illustrates their designers’ conflicting visions of modernity at a time of renewed interest in their work.

The exhibition, which was organized by Christian Witt-Dörring and Matthias Boeckl, begins by charting the birth of consumerism in Austria from the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, as manufacturers vied to appeal to the new middle classes. Many of those companies used recently invented materials and techniques, including pressed glass and varnished papier-mâché, to produce furniture, wallpaper and ornaments in a dazzling array of historic styles, sometimes combining them in, say, a table with a Baroque top and a Gothic base.

...

Yet the exhibition ends by redressing the balance and demonstrating how the reputations of both adversaries have risen in recent years, showing work by other designers that bears their influence. Having been feted in the 1980s by postmodernist architects and designers, including Hans Hollein and Ettore Sottsass, Mr. Hoffmann is now benefiting from the revival of interest in craftsmanship. As for Mr. Loos, he continues to inspire latter-day radicals, from the architect Rem Koolhaas to young design activists.