From Biedermeier to Industrial Design
	The term “Biedermeier” describes the first half of the nineteenth century when arts and crafts were flourishing in Austria. After the failure of the French Revolution, members of the bourgeoisie were still being kept from political power, despite their growing wealth and importance. Thus, they concentrated on private interests, particularly the arts. Apartments became the focus of life. Furniture and decorative objects were practical, simple, and beautifully shaped. Crafts also experienced a high point, particularly in the creation of decorative glass. The so-called “Jugendstil” at the turn of the twentieth century brought a further high point. This European arts movement turned away from traditional historicism as taught at arts academies. Simultaneously, it revived the crafts movement to distinguish it from cheap mass productions of the industrial revolution.
							In Vienna, Jugendstil was represented by the Vienna Secession (whose most famous artist was Gustav Klimt) and the Wiener Werkstätte. Furniture and other objects of the Wiener Werkstätte can be seen at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1987, Austrian Rita Bucheit presents antiques and decorative objects from the Biedermeier and Vienna Secession periods at her gallery on 449 North Wells Street. More recently, Austria has contributed to the development of design in Chicago through design pioneer Henry Glass (1911-2003). Born in Vienna, Henry Glass received his architecture diploma there, but National Socialism forced him into exile in 1939 and he went to the United States.
		In 1942 he moved to Chicago where he founded the company “Henry P. Glass Associated” which produced furniture, both for residences and institutions such as schools and libraries, and engaged in equipment and product design. For more than twenty years, Henry Glass taught industrial design at the School of the Art Institute. In 1996, he published the book “The Shape of Manmade Things”. His work can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago, at the Chicago Athenaeum, and in the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. To participate in the modern art scene in Chicago, Austria has established an artists’ studio on Milwaukee Avenue in the early 1990s. Young Austrian artists can work there for six months and make contact with Chicago artists, galleries and art institutions. Websites: www.architechgallery.com/arch_info/artists_pages/henryglass.html www.ritabucheit.com/