JOSEF HOFFMAN SITZMASCHINE CHAIR

About

Austria: Josef Hoffman Sitzmaschine chair, Model 670, 1900’s, Signed

“Sitzmashine means “machine for sitting” and Hoffman designed this for his sanatorium in Vienna. The sanatorium was one of the first important commissions given to the Wiener Werkstätte, a collaborative workshop founded in 1903 by Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. It represents one of Hoffmann’s earliest experiments in unifying a building and its furnishings as a total work of art.

J. & J. Kohn manufactured and sold this chair in a number of versions, most of which had cushions on the seat and back, until at least 1916. The Kohn firm produced many designs by Hoffmann, forming one of the first successful alliances between a designer and industry in Vienna.”

Publication excerpt from MoMA Highlights: 375 Works from The Museum
of Modern Art, New York (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019)