Koloman Moser (1868-1918)
Moser was an Austrian painter and designer who like many of his colleagues
in Vienna Secession movement, rejected distinctions between the art and practicality.
After co-founding the Secession, Moser joined with Josef
Hoffmann to create the Wiener
Werkstätte in 1903. As an enthusiastic craftsman, Moser was determined
to create a place where artists came down from their "ivory towers"
and worked with their own hands in a variety of media. Moser was also the
first artist (yet known) to do what we now call "tessellation" -
interlocking shapes that represent recognizable forms that follow the rules
of repeat patterns. It was a marvelous visual idea that worked equally well
in fabric, paper, stone work, and a variety of other forms. Tessellation later
inspired such artists as M.C. Escher and others. Moser’s esthetic, therefore,
encapsulates the currents of the artistic and intellectual explosion in his
contemporary Vienna while providing an excellent departure point for subsequent
designers.