Darmstadt documents

More from the University of Heidelberg’s treasure trove of digitised books, Die Ausstellung der Darmstädter Künstler-Kolonie (1901) is also related to Deustche Kunst und Dekoration by being a product of that journal’s publisher, Alexander Koch. The book showcases the work and philosophy of the Darmstadt art and design colony, many of whose artworks and architecture designs were featured in DK&D. Since having gone through the back issues of Koch’s journal I’ve become increasingly fascinated by the Darmstadt group and their contemporaries in the Wiener Werkstätte so finding a handful of new documents is very welcome, even if much of the work is now familiar. The continual use of the square at this period of German and Austrian design is particularly notable (Ver Sacrum, lest we forget, was a square-format magazine) and square motifs have been feeding into my own work in various ways recently, some of which will be revealed here soon.

Also in the Heidelberg archive are some related publications, Ein Dokument deutscher Kunst: die Ausstellung der Künstler-Kolonie in Darmstadt (1901) by Peter Behrens, and Die Ausstellung der Künstler-Kolonie Darmstadt (1902) by Joseph Maria Olbrich, several pages of German text but it does include a plan of the colony grounds.

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Ver Sacrum, 1898