Vienna (OTS) – The extensive Backhausen Archive is now available on permanent loan to the Leopold Museum in Vienna: around 11,000 individual objects, including thousands of original designs and fabric samples from the historicist, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Kinetist periods – including works by Josef Hoffmann or Koloman Moser – can be viewed publicly for the first time from November 2024 at the Leopold Museum as part of a special exhibition. The show Poetry of ornament. The Backhausen archive (November 13, 2024 to March 9, 2025) will provide insight into the fantastic diversity of the collection. In addition, selected objects are presented as part of the Wien 1900 permanent presentation in the Leopold Museum.
The commitment of Dr. Louise Kiesling (1957–2022)
The company owner Louise Kiesling, who died in December 2022, cataloged and digitized the unique collection after taking over Backhausen in 2014. Your personal vision, which was characterized by appreciation for and knowledge of Austrian textile crafts, can be continued in the spirit of the family. Louise Kiesling’s artistically creative way of thinking, which was manifested not least through her degrees from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Royal College of Art in London, was impressively reflected in her actions in her commitment to textile art and was thus central to the preservation of this museum Convolute contributed. “We are pleased that, through this cooperation with such a renowned cultural institution as the Leopold Museum, we have now succeeded in preserving the archive as Austrian cultural heritage and making it accessible to a broader, interested public.”
said Andreas Kiesling, son of the late entrepreneur.
The pleasing realization of this project is due not least to the art affinity and foresight of the lenders. Leopold Museum director Hans-Peter Wipplinger emphasizes the importance of this significant expansion of the holdings: “We would like to thank the owner family for their trust in handing over this art-historically important archive to us. The achievements of Dr. Louise Kiesling deserves special mention, who has dedicated herself with passion and great moral and monetary commitment to the systematic scientific processing, inventory, photographic documentation and storage according to museum conservation standards, thereby ensuring the preservation of this valuable cultural heritage. Without their valuable work for the Backhausen Archive, which has been listed as a unit since 2022 because of its uniqueness, this cooperation and the exhibition taking place in autumn 2024 would not be possible.
Vienna 1900. Dawn of modernity
The permanent presentation in the Leopold Museum is the world’s most comprehensive overview of art and culture in Vienna around 1900. The exhibition allows you to immerse yourself in a unique world of experience that ranges from historicism to Art Nouveau and Expressionism to New Objectivity. Paintings and graphic works by important artists such as Hans Makart, Tina Blau, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Broncia Koller-Pinell can be seen, as can exquisite examples of Viennese modernist arts and crafts. This is where the holdings of the important archive of the Backhausen company are congenially linked and, by handing over the archive to the care of the museum, continue to enable scientific research into the objects as well as their presentation at home and abroad.
Johann Backhausen & Söhne, a traditional brand with a worldwide reputation
The company Joh. Backhausen & Sons is one of the most traditional furniture and decorative fabric producers in Austrian history. The company was founded in Vienna around 1840 by Jakob Backhausen (1789–1849). The son of a master weaver came to Vienna from the Rhineland in 1811, where he bought a house in Gumpendorf. His son Johann Backhausen (1818–1866) took over the business in 1849, the year his father died, and founded the company Karl & Johann Backhausen & Co., together with his brother. The high quality of the products soon led to international awards. After Karl left the company, it became… Johann Backhausen, kk exclusively privileged fashion and chenille factory renamed. Johann secured the patents to produce chenille goods in Austria, France and Saxony and even delivered to the United States. In 1864 they moved into a sales outlet on the new Ringstrasse, in the Heinrichshof, which was built by Theophil von Hansen opposite the Vienna Court Opera. High-quality fashion fabrics as well as the manufacture of furniture and curtain materials, damasks, brocades and carpets made of silk and wool were the main branches of production. The flourishing company produced fabrics for the interior decoration of several Vienna Ringstrasse buildings, including the Imperial and Royal Court Opera, the Reichsrats Building (Parliament), the Vienna City Hall and the Hofburg Theater. In 1888, Johann Backhausen was awarded the title of Imperial Purveyor to the Court for his high-quality work and high-quality products.
Main supplier of the Wiener Werkstätte
From 1903 onwards, Backhausen dedicated himself – not least through the intensive cooperation with the Wiener Werkstätte, founded in the same year under the founding trio Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Fritz Waerndorfer – to working intensively with contemporary artists, among them outstanding protagonists of Viennese modernism such as the aforementioned artists Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser as well as Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Jutta Sika, Dagobert Peche, My Ullmann and Otto Prutscher, among others. Backhausen specialized in turning her designs into commercial products. The fruitful symbiosis culminated in the furnishings of the Purkersdorf sanatorium (1904/05), the Villa Ast (1911), the Villa Skywa-Primavesi (1913–1915), the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905–1911) and the Villa Knips (1924 ).
Article on the Backhausen archive in the ÖZKD
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