Re-Edition Frederick Kiesler, 2002-2005

Introduction

A re-edition implies the resumption of past manifestations of an artistic expression. The historical fact from the original work that has come down to us has long since been categorized – indeed assimilated – by historical science, and is now being reappraised in a special way. The gain in meaning that is now being attached to this work so many years after its creation is justified by its topical relevance in the here and now. Nothing is quite as flattering, above all in art and design, as the status of immediate presence. That which is distinguished thus boasts at least two phases of great contemporary acceptance since it came into existence. The first lies in the past, and was of such quality that probably ensured that it would stand the test of time. The second phase is characterized by revival, is part of our present and, ipso facto, draws – at least demands – our attention like many other statements of our time.
For the designer, architect and artist Frederick Kiesler, the focus of artistic interest was on a changing, highly adaptable creativity since the nineteen-twenties. In his theories and concepts, Kiesler investigates the needs of his time and of the people, so as to incorporate them into his work as form-giving factors. It is not only the latest technological standards and findings of natural science that characterize his analysis, but equally so the intellectual dispositions – psychological, sociological and philosophical components – that shapes Kiesler’s universal world-model. The very practical considerations in his theory of correalism are geared primarily to the technological environment, as he called it – to the man-made environment, to the laws of mutually conditional forces and structures. For each type of influence, i.e. shaping of our environment, Kiesler demands appropriate measures of reviewing the function and effect of the applied forms and means, as well as adaptation thereof to the current status of requirements. Accordingly, he already orientated himself by ”modern mass civilization and mass culture and their inherent cult of speed” at the end of the twenties, making his choice of materials (wood, glass, metal) dependent on their psycho-functional effect, and designing the form of the object according to its purpose and practical use. Kiesler uses the term tool to define the connecting element that joins his universal conception of reality with his practical ideas. To him, tool implies any kind of addition made or devised by man: ”In this sense everything which man uses in his struggle for existence is a tool (…) from shirts to shelter, from cannons to poetry, from telephones to painting.”
Kiesler verifies his theories primarily on the basis of artistic design – the aim of his efforts is to expound the tool, acting on all of our senses, with ”the means and the expression of our age” in the continuous intermeshing of architecture, sculpture and painting. His ambition to marry fields of artistic activity, and to comprehend ”creative work” as a form of ”technology” lends topical importance to Kiesler’s conception of the work and justifies its re-integration into the discourse on current design. This programmatic adherence to the intimate interplay of function and form in artistic design, which was ultimately to lead to his renunciation of the International Style, is also to be observed in his ”moving” plans for the Correalistic Instrument of 1942. A few years later, the biomorphic design of Kiesler’s Endless House was the translation of this concept into a living unit shaped by the forces of life. In his article Pseudo-Functionalism in Modern Architecture Kiesler emphasized once again in 1949 that, in contrast to Louis Sullivan’s motto: ”Form follows function” – form does not follow function but rather that ”(…) Function follows vision. Vision follows reality.”
The re-edition of Frederick Kiesler’s correalistic furniture, the Rocker, the Party Lounge and Bed Couch, therefore not only recalls to mind a repertory of forms that can expect to receive recognition in view of fashionable trends. Rather, it is the artistic intentions of a purpose-bound flexibility and the form derived from it that helps our time achieve an exemplary aesthetic. For today too, our immediate reality demands an art-reality that evolves from the mesh of correlations between various components of life. Inseparably ”linked with the flow of everyday life,” it leads to creations that ”blend dream and reality.”

Monika Pessler
Kiesler Foundation Vienna