Oskar Strnad (26 October 1879 – 3 September 1935) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and

set designer Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

for films and theatres. Together with Josef Frank he was instrumental in creating the distinctive character of the ''

Wiener Schule der Architektur The Wiener Moderne () or ''Viennese Modernism'' is a term describing the culture of Vienna in the period between approximately 1890 and 1910. It refers especially to the development of modernism in the Austrian capital and its effect on the sph ...

'' ("Vienna School of Architecture"). He stood for a modern concept of "living" for all people, planned and built private dwelling-houses, designed furniture, created ceramics and watercolours and designed sets and props for stage plays and films.

Biography

Strnad was born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

on 26 October 1879 into a family of Jewish descent.Architekturzentrum Wien Architektenlexikon
From 1909 to 1935 he was a professor in the ''

Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule The University of Applied Arts Vienna (german: Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, or informally just ''Die Angewandte'') is an arts university and institution of higher education in Vienna, the capital of Austria. It has had university s ...

'' ("School of Applied Arts in Vienna") along with

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrians, Austrian-Sudeten Germans, Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architect ...

. From 1918 he created designs for a "round theatre" (''Rundtheater'') in collaboration with his pupil Margarete Lihotzky (later

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Margarete "Grete" Lihotzky (born 23 January 1897 in the Margareten district of Vienna, Austria-Hungary – 18 January 2000) was an Austrian architect and a communist activist in the Austrian resistance to Nazism. She is mostly remembered tod ...

). Among his other pupils were the later film architects and set designers

Artur Berger Artur Semyonovich Berger (german: Arthur Berger, russian: Артур Семёнович Бергер; 27 May 1892 – 11 January 1981) was an Austrian-Soviet film architect and set designer. He was active in Austria between 1920 and 1936, durin ...

and Harry Horner. In 1923 Strnad constructed the ''Drei-Szenen-Theater'' ("three-scene-theatre"), a three-part stage within a circular auditorium. From 1919 he was stage designer for the Wiener Volkstheater. Later Strnad designed many highly acclaimed sets for the

Wiener Staatsoper The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August Si ...

, including sets for Berg's ''

Wozzeck ''Wozzeck'' () is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama ''Woyzeck'', which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at h ...

'' and for the premiere of ''

Jonny spielt auf ''Jonny spielt auf'' (''Jonny Strikes Up''), Op. 45, is a German-language with words and music by Austrian composer Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. He dedicated the opera to his second wife, Berta Herrmann.Ernst Krenek Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a stud ...

. He also designed interiors for the lavish masterpieces of the "

Wiener Film Wiener Film (German; plural: ''Wiener Filme''; literally, "Viennese film") is an Austrian film genre, consisting of a combination of comedy, romance and melodrama in a historical setting, mostly, and typically, the Vienna of the late 19th and early ...

" such as '' Maskerade'' (1934) and ''

Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning ...

'' (1935). He died in

Bad Aussee Bad Aussee (Central Bavarian: ''Bod Ossee'') is a town in the Austrian state of Styria, located at the confluence of the three sources of the Traun River in the Ausseerland region. Bad Aussee serves as the economic and cultural center of the Styri ...

on 3 September 1935.

Works

* 1914 - The Austrian pavilion of the World Fair 1914 (''Werkbund Exposition (1914)'') (with

) * 1925 - The Austrian pavilion of the ''Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925)'' (with Josef Hoffmann) * 1918 - "''Rundtheater''" (planned 1917) * 1923 - Realisation of the "''Drei-Szenen-Theater''" (3-part stage and circular auditorium) * 1926 - a theatre in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

* 1932 - double house, now destroyed, in the Werkbundsiedlung Wien * 1932 - house for ordinary people (''"Volkshaus"'') in Wien 15, Holochergasse * throughout his career, in Vienna and

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt ...

: numerous private houses and interior designs; * throughout his career, in Austria: war graves and war memorials; chairs; decorative glass; sculptures; and so on * in the

Österreichisches Theatermuseum The Theatermuseum is a federal museum of national theatre history. Since 1991 it is situated in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna. History The museum has its origins in the theatre-related collections of the Austrian National Library, dating bac ...

, Vienna: stage sets and costume designs (77 pieces).

Notes

Sources and external links

*
elib.uni-stuttgart.de: OPUS - Offene Welten: die Wiener Schule im Einfamilienhausbau 1910 - 1938
(Meder, Iris)

Exhibition

*''O.S. 1879-1935''

Jüdisches Museum Wien The Jüdisches Museum Wien, trading as ''Jüdisches Museum der Stadt Wien GmbH'' or the Jewish Museum Vienna, is a museum of Jewish history, life and religion in Austria. The museum is present on two locations, in the Palais Eskeles in the Doro ...

, Palais Eskeles, Dorotheergasse, Wien. Bis 24. Juni 2007. Catalogue, edited by Iris Meder & Jüdisches Museum Wien, 2007. Salzburg: Verlag Anton Pustet.

References

* Eisler, Max, 1936: ''O. Strnad. Mit ausgewählten Schriften des Künstlers'' * Gregor, Joseph, 1949: ''O. Strnad. Sein Vermächtnis an das Theater'' * Gregor, Joseph, 1936: ''Rede auf Oskar Strnad''. Vienna: Reichner * Stoklaska, J., 1960: ''O. Strnad''. Dissertation, Vienna * Niedermoser, Otto, 1965: ''O. Strnad''. Vienna: Bergland * Sothebys (New York), ''20th Century Decorative Arts'', March 11, 2004 * Levetus, A. S., ''Austrian Architecture and Decoration'' * Schütte-Lihotzky, Margarete, 2004: ''Warum ich Architektin wurde''. Salzburg: Residenz. * Spalt, Johannes (ed.), 1979: ''Der Architekt Oskar Strnad. Zum 100. Geburtstage am 26. Okt. 1979''. Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Wien * Weich, U., 1995: ''Die theoretischen Ansichten des Architekten und Lehrers O. Strnad''. Thesis, Vienna * Boltenstein, Erich (compiler), 1933: ''Die Wohnung für jedermann. Vorschläge für die Durchbildung und Verwendung einfacher Möbel für die heutige Wohnung: Entwürfe aus der Fachklasse für Architektur an der Kunstgewerbeschule in Wien, unter Leitung von Oskar Strnad''. Stuttgart: J. Hoffmann. 1933 {{DEFAULTSORT:Strnad, Oskar Austrian architects Austrian designers Austrian scenic designers Austrian Jews Artists from Vienna 1879 births 1935 deaths Wiener Werkstätte Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Modernist architects from Austria