As
one of the first women in Central Europe ever to receive a professorship, Rothansl taught artists such as Friedl Dicker-Brandeis,
Elisabeth Karlinsky, Vally Wieselthier, and Emmy Zweybrück in the field of textile techniques. Stoisavljevic was trained as
a graphic designer and enamel artist at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and was active early on in the milieu of the
Secession, including work for the journals
Die Fläche (The Surface) and
Ver Sacrum.
The exhibition contextualizes the work of these two protagonists for the first time on the basis of their textile collection,
which have been preserved at the institute Collection and Archive of the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the form of
two omnibus volumes. These feature multicolored, hand-crafted pieces of knit, embroidered, or lace clothing and fragments
woven in regionally specific patterns, originating from anonymous creators of the rural regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Dalmatia,
Galicia, Lodomeria, or Bukovina, but also South and East Asia. The exhibition investigates the two volumes as reflections
of an interest in so-called “Volkskunst” (folk art) that gained strength beginning in the second half of the 19th century
and that was palpable both in the humanities disciplines that were then establishing themselves, as well as in the (applied)
arts and contemporary museum practice. This interest connects the collections of the two artists with figures such as haute
couturier Emilie Flöge, ethnologist Michael Haberlandt, or art historian Alois Riegl.
Textile Transfers approaches
Rothansl’s and Stoisavljevic-Roller’s multifaceted use of textiles as artistic models and artifacts. On the one hand, the
exhibition highlights Rothansl’s teaching and the relevance of her curatorial practice at the School of Arts and Crafts for
the work of her students, with reference to individual careers. On the other hand, it tracks the photographic staging of clothing
compiled by Stoisavljevic as examples of reform dress, placing it in the context of the artist’s interconnection with the
Klimt group. Furthermore, the exhibition traces the roles the collection items play in the construction of national identity
and in the transformation of gender relations in the context of the reform of arts and crafts around 1900. The eclectic composition
of the textile collections raises questions as to the existence of a primitivism peculiar to the Wiener Moderne, in light
of its appropriation of artistic knowledge practices from regions that therein appear as belonging to the “peripheries” of
Austro-Hungary or the “Orient.”
University Gallery Heiligenkreuzerhof
Opening: 30 April 2025,
18:00
Duration: 2 May – 12 July 2025
Opening hours: Wednesday–Saturday, 14:00-18:00
Closed on public holidays
Accompanying program:
8. May,
6pm, book presentation:
Rethinking Modern Austrian Art Beyond the Metropolis. Lecture by Julia Secklehner,
followed by a conversation between the author and Stefanie Kitzberger and Eva Klimpel. Location: University of Applied Arts
Vienna, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, A-1030 Vienna, Seminar Room 20, 4th floor.
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information15. May, 6pm, lecture:
Marta Filipová: A fine line: lace between folk art and
modern design. Location: University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vordere Zollamtsstraße 7, A-1030 Vienna, Seminar Room 20,
4th floor.
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information4. Juni, 18 Uhr, lecture:
Matthew Rampley, States of Exception: Collecting
Asian Art and National Identity in Central Europe. Location: University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vordere Zollamtsstraße
7, A-1030 Vienna, Seminar Room 20, 4th floor.
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information 
