0333 Eine Architektenmonographie als Abrechnung

Joseph August Lux’ "Otto Wagner" von 1914

Abstract

Otto Wagner was already honoured with a monograph during his lifetime. What may at first glance appear to be a tribute to the architect and his life’s work by the well-known cultural journalist Joseph August Lux reveals itself, in the context of the author’s other writings, as a relatively undisguised attack on the cultural establishment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and its art policies. In his Wagner monograph, Lux elaborated on the theme of the artist suffering from the incomprehension of those in power – a motif he had previously developed in several of his novels. Lux too, despite the wide circulation of his books, saw himself as a victim of cultural policy, and thus as a kindred interpreter of Wagner’s creative work and suffering.