Koloman Moser

Of all the artists who designed Loetz glass, Koloman ('Kolo') Moser was surely the most celebrated.

Moser was born in Vienna in 1868 and studied design and painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in his home city from 1885 till 1892, and then graphic design at the School for Applied Arts until 1895, where he subsequently became a teacher in 1899 and received his professorship one year later.

In 1897, Moser had joined Josef Hoffmann, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Joseph Maria Olbrich and Gustav Klimt as co-founders of the Weiner Secession, and in 1903, together with Josef Hoffmann and the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer, he co-founded the Wiener Werkstaette, based on the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

Moser became editor of the Werkstaette magazine, 'Ver Sacrum', in 1904, but left a year later after a dispute with Klimt.

Moser was active in all branches of applied art, including painting, graphic design, furniture, metalwork, fabrics, book covers, jewelry and, of course, glass.

In 1908 Moser quarreled with Waerndorfer and left the Wiener Werkstaette, concentrating subsequently mostly on painting.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1916 and died two years later in Vienna.

It is worth mentioning here that Loetz produced little of the glass commissioned by the Wiener Werkstaette; most of the contracts were awarded to Meyr's Neffe, Oertel in Haida and Ludwig Moser in Carlsbad. Almost all of the Moser designs and décors realised by Loetz were commissions by Bakalowits in Vienna.