Wolfgang Hoffmann met his wife Pola when she was studying in Vienna under Joseph Hoffmann, Wolfgang's father and the co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte. The couple immigrated to New York in 1925 and worked as a team until their divorce in the early 1930s.
This cigarette and match holder with ashtray typifies the work of early modernists, who favored geometric patterning over ornamentation to provide interest. The juxtaposition of the two rectangles and the hemisphere, itself inset with pie-shaped forms, creates a tension that elevates the utilitarian object into an art form.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Cigarette and Match Holder with Ashtray
Designer:Wolfgang Hoffmann (American (born Austria) Vienna 1900–1969 Chicago, Illinois)
Designer: Pola Hoffmann (American (born Poland) Stryj 1902–1984 Stamford, Connecticut)
Manufacturer:Early American Pewter Company, Boston, MA
Date:ca. 1930
Medium:Pewter
Dimensions:2 in. × 4 in. × 2 1/4 in. (5.1 × 10.2 × 5.7 cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Pewter
Credit Line:John C. Waddell Collection, Gift of John C. Waddell, 2000
Accession Number:2000.600.10a,b
John C. Waddell, New York (by 1999–2000; his gift to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Twelfth Exhibition of Contemporary American Industrial Art," October 12–November 22, 1931, unnumbered cat. (p. 17).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 16, 2000–January 7, extended to February 4, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 117; lent by John C. Waddell, Promised Gift of John C. Waddell).
Newport Beach, Calif. Orange County Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 25–August 19, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Flint. Flint Institute of Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," September 14–December 16, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," January 11–April 7, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Charlotte. Mint Museum of Craft and Design. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 3–July 28, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Tulsa. Philbrook Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," August 23–November 17, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Richard F. Bach. "Industrial Design: The Resurgence of Quality." Modern American Design by the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen. Ed. R. L. Leonard and C. A[dolph]. Glassgold. New York, 1930, ill. p. 81 (reprinted in Ref. Byars 1992).
Karen Davies. At Home in Manhattan: Modern Decorative Arts, 1925 to the Depression. Exh. cat., Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, 1983, pp. 67, 77, 90, no. 55, ill. (Alan Moss Studios, New York collection).
Mel Byars inModern American Design by the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen. Ed. R. L. Leonard and C. A[dolph]. Glassgold. Reprint ed. (1st ed., 1930). New York, 1992, p. xii, ill. p. 81.
Walter von Nessen (American (born Germany), Berlin 1899–1943 Wiscasset, Maine)
1934
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