Erwin Puchinger

Puchinger worked in London, Prague and Paris as well as Vienna and collaborated with other major figures in Viennese art and design such as Ernst and Gustav Klimt and Otto Prutscher. He was a respected art professor at the Graphic Arts Institute, where he taught for more than thirty years. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

• Name — Erwin Puchinger • Born — 7 July 1875 • Birthplace — Vienna, Austria-Hungary • Died — 17 May 1944 • Place of death — Vienna, Germany • Known for — Painter • Movement — Jugendstil, Art Nouveau

Erwin Puchinger was born in Vienna on 7 July 1875. He came from a prominent family of Austrian officials. In 1891 and 1892, Puchinger began evening drawing classes at the newly opened (1888) Graphic Arts and Research Institute (der Graphischen Lehr und Versuchsanstelt). This was an experimental institute that trained professionals in design and the graphic arts. Next, Puchinger studied at the School of Arts and Crafts (Later the School of Applied Art), which was founded in 1867 as part of the new Austrian Museum of Science and Industry (Kunstgewerbeschule des Osterreichen de Museums fur Industrie und Kunst). Puchinger first studied with Ludwig Minnigerode (1847–1930) and then with the famous muralist and art professor Franz von Matsch (1861–1942), who worked on decorative art with the brothers Gustav (1862–1918) and Ernst Klimt (1864–1892), they had a decorating company that did elaborate murals for wealthy clients. Puchinger's earliest known works are landscape and architectural drawings of 1892 and 1893, which were already of a professional quality.

When Puchinger was in the last years of his studies, a group of young architects and artists, Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffman and Joseph Maria Olbrich, rejected the opulent and decadent style of the day and the variety of architectural styles of the Ringstrasse. They were Influenced by classical Greece and Rome and wanted to create buildings that were fresh and modern, where decoration was part of the design, rather than superfluous. Together with a group of young and innovative artists, including Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Max Kurzweil (1867–1916), they broke away from the old academy, the Association of Austrian Artists that had held its exhibitions in the old Kunstlerhaus. They created a new union known as the Union of Austrian Artists (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs) that is known as the Vienna Secession (das Wien Sezission). Because Erwin Puchinger's friend and classmate Kolo Moser was one of the Secessionists and the fact that they shared the same influences, his work is quite similar to that of Moser in style and execution. What Puchinger, Moser, Klimt, Wagner, Olbrich and Hoffmann were working toward was a unification of the arts, to erase the division between fine and applied art and to create projects where everything shared the same principles of design and execution, a total approach to art known in Vienna as Gesamtkunstwerk.

In the year 1900, Erwin Puchinger completed his studies. He had made sketching trips to Capri and Rome, where he absorbed the classical influences. At the Exposition Universelle, the Paris Worlds Fair, of 1900, one of his large decorative paintings was given great prominence in the huge Austrian pavilion. He received accolades in the French, Austrian and British press. The first issue of the famous Viennese design magazine Das Interieur featured his work from Paris.

Erwin Puchinger is recorded with the occupation postage stamp designer. Recorded with the occupation graphic artist. Recorded as painter, postage stamp designer, illustrator and artist.

• The Albertina Museum, Vienna • Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles • Imperial War Museum, London • Victoria & Albert Museum, London • Wolfsonian Museum, Florida International University, Miami • Austrian National Library, Vienna

• Jos. Folnesics und Franz Ritter, Mittheilungen des K.K. Oesterreich Museums fur Kunst und Industrie: Monatschrift fur Kunstgewerbe, Wien: Oesterreich Museums fur Kunst und Industrie, Neue Folge V. Band, Januar 1894 Bis December 1895 (Official monthly magazine for the arts, Museum of Science and Industry) (Puchinger is cited on page 2) • Guerinet Armad, editeur, Le Journal de la Decoration, Paris: Publication Periodique, 1900 (Puchinger’s work is reproduced) • Dr. Ludwig Abels, Das Interieur: Wiener Monatshefte fur angewandte Kunst, Issue I, Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1901 (Puchinger’s Interior for the Exposition 1900 reproduced on page 125) • Dr. Ludwig Abels, Das Interieur: Wiener Monatshefte fur angewandte Kunst, Issue II, Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1901 (Puchinger listed in the issue) • Die Kunst und das schöne Heim:Monatschefte fur Freie und angewandte Kunst, München: Verlagsantalt F. Bruckmann A.G., 1901 (Puchinger and his collaborator Otto Prutscher’s designs reviewed on page 245) • J.A. Lux, Das Interieur: Wiener Monatshefte fur angewandte Kunst, Issue IV, Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1903 (Text on the collaboration between Otto Prutscher and Erwin Puchinger on page 22, 210, 224) • J.A. Lux, Das Interieur: Wiener Monatshefte fur angewandte Kunst, Issue V, Wien: Kunstverlag Anton Schroll & Co., 1903 (Puchinger listed in issue). • Die Kunst: Monatshefte fur Freie und angewandte Kunst, Dr. Ludwig Abels, Der Wiener Hangebund, München: Verlagsanstalt F. Bruckmann A.-G., 1902 (Article on the Hagenbud group, pages 75–79) • Dekorative Vorbilder. Ornamente, Figuren, Blumen, Embleme, Landschaften, Allegorien, Heraldik, Stuttgart: Verlag von Julius Hoffmann, 1902 (Puchinger’s work was included in these folios with Mucha, Klimt, Moser) • Charles Holme (editor), The International Studio, London: John Lane Company Volume 26, June–September, 1902 (Article with Puchinger and Prutscher at the London Exhibition, pages 291–292, Turin Exhibition, pages 47–52) • Charles Holme (editor), The International Studio, London: John Lane Company Volume 29, August 15, 1903 (Article on Vienna and Viennese design in Studio Talk Section, pages 225–228) • The Dial: A Semi-Monthly of Literary Criticism, Discussion and Information, Volume XXXVI, January 1-June 16, 1904, Chicago: The Dial Company, Publishers (Review, Imperial Vienna with Puchinger Illus., page 427) • Dekorative Vorbilder. Ornamente, Figuren, Blumen, Embleme, Landschaften, Allegorien, Heraldik, Stuttgart: Verlag von Julius Hoffmann, 1904 (Puchinger’s work was included in at least one of the monthly folios in 1904) • The United Service: A Monthly review of Military and Naval Affairs, Volume VII, Third Series, New York: L.R. Hammersly, February, 1905 (Review of Imperial Vienna with Puchinger Illustrations, page 254) • Charles Holme, The International Studio, London:John Lane Company, Volume 53, 1914 (Puchinger listed in the Index of volume 53) • Alexander Koch, Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration: eutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Darmstadt: Verlagsanstalt Alexander Koch, Volume 68, 1931 (Puchinger and his work on bookbinding included)