The 1900 World’s Fair in Paris was a momentous occasion, a cultural tidal wave that sent ripples of inspiration across the art world as it embarked on a new century. Among the fair’s fifty million visitors was Ludwig Hohlwein, a recent graduate of the architecture department at the Technical University of Munich. The works that Hohlwein encountered at the fair left a lasting impression, especially designs by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and members of the English Arts and Crafts movement, whose work would guide Hohlwein’s design style throughout the following decade.¹ After the fair, Hohlwein settled in Munich and in 1903 opened his own studio, where he designed interiors, furniture, and decorative arts.

 

Hohlwein’s mantel clock, designed around 1905, demonstrates the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement.² The clock is supported by a solid metal base with prominent rivets on each side that plainly communicate the structural integrity of the object while also serving as ornament. Aesthetic and functional harmony was fundamental to the Arts and Crafts movement. Hohlwein’s design also celebrates the inherit beauty of his materials—the hammered copper and polished brass surfaces. He included ornament below the clockface in the form of symmetrically composed, though slightly irregular, triangles. This motif is derived from geometric Islamic textiles woven in North Africa. Hohlwein’s Viennese contemporaries, such as Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt, used similar patterns in their work, and it is unclear if Hohlwein was looking directly to Islamic art for inspiration or reinterpreting designs by other Western artists of the period. The irregularity of the triangles demonstrates Holhwein’s embrace of the imperfections in his design. These perceived flaws serve as markers of craftsmanship, privileging handwork over mechanization, a key tenet of the Arts and Crafts movement. However, the clock was not made by Hohlwein. It was produced by Josef Zimmermann & Co., a metalworks manufacturer based in Munich, and is not a unique object. During this period, Hohlwein worked extensively with Zimmermann, which fabricated his designs in brass, copper, and iron. These designs included fireplace surrounds, embossed metal panels used in furniture design, at least three additional mantle clocks, and other decorative objects, but this collaboration was short-lived. By 1910 Hohlwien had abandoned these aspects of his practice and began working exclusively as a graphic designer and poster artist. He forged a prosperous career in this field that lasted until his death in 1949. His poster designs from the early twentieth century are his most well-known works as well as his most controversial due to his involvement with the Nazi party. —Sarah Marie Horne