Transatlantic Modernism, 1900-1945: Vally Wieselthier, the Wiener Werkstätte, and Design

Image: FIT Special Collections and College Archives | Gladys Marcus Library | Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

FEBRUARY 10 | 9 AM – 5 PM | CUNY Graduate Center

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE

Transatlantic Modernism, 1900–1945: Vally Wieselthier, the Wiener Werkstätte, and Design takes these topics as points of departure to explore transatlantic exchanges between Vienna and the United States. In centering the Austrian-American ceramic sculptor Vally (Valerie) Wieselthier (1895–1945), the symposium brings together an international cohort of experts to examine pivotal contributions to modern art and design in the early twentieth century, many of them made by Jewish women affiliated with the Wiener Werkstätte (1903–1932), and the dialogues in transatlantic modernism that expanded these discourses into an American context.

Organized on the occasion of two exhibitions, the recent Vally Wieselthier: Sculpting Modernism at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and the Women of the Wiener Werkstätte opening at the Jewish Museum this summer, speakers will illuminate the unique, reform-oriented, context in which these artists operated.

International scholars will provide fresh perspectives on Wieselthier’s life and work as the most successful member of the Wiener Werkstätte to establish a career in the United States. Participants will investigate the image of the “New Woman” in the work of both Wieselthier and her contemporaries, and offer feminist readings on this symbolic, emancipatory, figure. Further presentations will also explore the distinctive circumstances and conditions in Vienna at the start of the 20th century which saw women in particular flourish as agents of reform, as well as the later reverberations of this milieu translated to New York. Special attention will be given to Jewish women whose work as artists, designers, and patrons were instrumental to the construction of new modernisms in this period.

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Transatlantic Modernism, 1900–1945: Vally Wieselthier, the Wiener Werkstätte, and Design is organized by Stephanie Buhmann, PhD., Head of Visual Arts, Architecture & Design, Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY, Director: Dr. Susanne Keppler-Schlesinger), Kristina Parsons, Leon Levy Assistant Curator, Jewish Museum, and Megan Brandow-Faller, PhD., City University of New York Kingsborough 2025/26 Fellow, Working Group on Jewish Migration, Center for Jewish Studies, CUNY Graduate Center with Jenna Weiss, Barnett & Annalee Newman Curator for Contemporary Programs, and Libby Kandel, Public Programs Coordinator, the Jewish Museum, and Milena Pumberger, Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Additional support provided by the CUNY Graduate Center.

Presenters

• Megan Brandow-Faller (Professor of History, City University of New York, Kingsborough; 2025/26 Fellow, CUNY Graduate Center)
• Stephanie Buhmann (Head of Visual Arts, Architecture and Design, Austrian Cultural Forum New York)
• Marilyn Friedman (Design Historian; Author of Making America Modern: Interior Design in the 1930s)
• Michael Hölters (Collections Associate and Curatorial Assistant, Metal Collection and Wiener Werkstätte Archive, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna)
• Rebecca Houze (Professor of Art and Design History, Northern Illinois University)
• Michelle Jackson-Beckett (Curator of Rare Books, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Cooper Hewitt)
• Julie M. Johnson (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History and Museum Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio)
• Claudia Lehner-Jobst (Curator and Scientific & Artistic Director, Augarten Porcelain Museum, Vienna)
• Katharina Lovecky (Curator, 19th-Century Collection, Belvedere, Vienna)
• Kristina Parsons (Leon Levy Assistant Curator, Jewish Museum, New York)
• Janis Staggs (Director of Curatorial and Manager of Publications, Neue Galerie New York)
• Abraham Thomas (Daniel Brodsky Curator of Modern Architecture, Design, and Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art)