Vally Wieselthier in ‘Modernity and Opulence’ at the Jewish Museum

From the early 1900s to the early 1930s, the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshops) brought together artists, designers and craftspeople to create functional and aesthetically informed environments.  The group exhibition ‘Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstatte’ at the Jewish Museum showcases the considerable contribution of Jewish women to an aesthetic movement that favored craftsmanship and innovation.  Here, three female heads from 1928 by one of the show’s key artists, Vally Wieselthier, poke fun at criticisms of fashionable women and allude to heavy criticism leveled at the Werkstatte at the time for involving female designers and patrons. (On view on the Upper East Side through Nov 15th).

Three ceramic heads of women in bright makeup, hair and hats.
Vally Wieselthier, Head of a woman, model 510, model 527 and model 494, glazed earthenware, 1928. Galerie bei der Albertina-Zetter, Vienna.

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