Frederick Kiesler

Throughout his career, Frederick Kiesler worked across mediums. He believed that “sculpture, painting, architecture should not be used as wedges to split our experience of art and life; they are here to link, to correlate, to bind dream and reality.”1 After studying painting and printmaking in Vienna in the early 1900s, he became known in Europe for his inventive stage designs, featuring mirrors and projections. In the course of working on these projects, he met and at times collaborated with artists such as El Lissitzky and László Moholy-Nagy. In 1923, Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg invited him to join de Stijl, making him the group’s youngest member.
In 1926, after traveling to New York to co-organize the International Theatre Exposition at Steinway Hall, Kiesler and his wife immigrated to the United States and settled in the city. There, Kiesler helped spread the ideas of the European avant-garde, such as non-objective painting, abstraction, and the merging of art and life. He found work as a professor at Columbia University’s School of Architecture and as the director of scenic design at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1942, he was chosen to design collector and art dealer Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century Gallery in New York, for which he planned every aspect, from an innovative method of installing paintings to its lighting, sculpture stands, and seating. In 1947, he designed the installation Salle Superstition for the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, organized by Marcel Duchamp and André Breton at the Galerie Maeght in Paris. In this exhibition, Kiesler also displayed his first work of sculpture, Totem for All Religions, a wood-and-rope construction that stands more than nine feet tall and simultaneously evokes a totem pole, a crucifix, and various astronomical symbols.
Kiesler’s longest-running project was Endless House, a single-family dwelling whose biomorphic form and lack of corners strongly contrasted with the hard geometric edges that defined most modern architecture of the time. He sought to design a structure responsive to the occupants’ functional and spiritual requirements. He developed his ideas for the house over several decades, creating numerous sketches and models. Although plans were made to build a to-scale model in MoMA’s Sculpture Garden in 1958, they did not materialize, and the project remains unrealized. Nonetheless, Kiesler’s Endless House concept was highly influential and stands as a strong expression of his bold statement: “Form does not follow function. Function follows vision. Vision follows reality.”2
Introduction by Lily Goldberg, Collection Specialist, Department of Painting and Sculpture, 2016
- Introduction
- Frederick John Kiesler (born Friedrich Jacob Kiesler; Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire [now Chernivtsi, Ukraine], September 22, 1890 – New York City, December 27, 1965) was an Austrian-American architect, theoretician, theater designer, artist and sculptor.
- Wikidata
- Q113775
- Introduction
- Kiesler worked with the architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933) in Vienna in 1920. He joined the Dutch de Stijl group with Van Doesberg, J.P. Oud and Mondrian in Leyden, Netherlands, in 1923. Kiesler emigrated to the United States in 1926; he was naturalized in 1936. Kiesler changed the spelling of his first name, Friedrich, to Frederick when he emigrated to the United States. Kiesler worked in partnership with Harvey Wiley Corbett in New York in 1926-1928. In 1930, he founded the architectural firm The Planners Institute, which was incorporated in 1934. He also worked with Armand Bastos, as Kiesler and Bartos, in New York from 1957 until his death. American architect, theater designer, sculptor; emigrated from Vienna in 1926.
- Nationalities
- American, Austrian, Romanian
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Architect, Writer, Furniture Designer, Painter, Sculptor
- Names
- Frederick Kiesler, Frederick John Kiesler, Frederick J. Kiesler, Frédéric Kiesler, Frederich Kiesler, Friedrich Kiesler, Fredriḳ Ḳisler
- Ulan
- 500031038
Exhibitions
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Engineer, Agitator, Constructor: The Artist Reinvented
Through Apr 10
MoMA
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511: The Vertical City
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 12, 2020
MoMA
Collection gallery
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519: Architecture for Modern Art
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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How Should We Live? Propositions for the Modern Interior
Oct 1, 2016–Apr 23, 2017
MoMA
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Endless House: Intersections of Art and Architecture
Jun 27, 2015–Mar 6, 2016
MoMA
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Frederick Kiesler has
45 exhibitionsonline.
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Hans Richter, El Lissitzky, Werner Graeff, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frederick Kiesler G: Material zur elementaren Gestaltung (Material for Elementary Construction) no.1, July 1923 1923
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Frederick Kiesler Endless Theatre Project, Plan 1924
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Frederick Kiesler Endless Theatre Project, Plan 1924
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Frederick Kiesler Endless Theater Project, Section 1924
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Frederick Kiesler, Kunsthandlung Würthle & Sohn Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik 1924
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Frederick Kiesler Internationale Ausstellung neuer Theatertechnik, Katalog, Programm, Almanach 1924
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Hans Richter, Werner Graeff, Frederick Kiesler, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe G: Zeitschrift für elementare Gestaltung (Journal for Elementary Construction) no.3, June 1924 1924
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Frederick Kiesler Place de la Concorde Project, Paris, France, Elevation 1925
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Frederick Kiesler Frederick Kiesler letterhead (Letter to Jean Badovici) 1930
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Frederick Kiesler Standing Lamp 1933
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Frederick Kiesler Nesting Coffee Table 1935-38
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Frederick Kiesler Multi-use Chair 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Multi-use Rocker Prototype 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Sculpture Stand 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Multi-use Chair 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Spanner 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Chair-Pedestal-Picture Rack c. 1942
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Frederick Kiesler Marcel Duchamp (1947)
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Frederick Kiesler Jean Arp (1947)
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Frederick Kiesler Architectural Plan for the Room of Superstitions 1947
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Frederick Kiesler The Moon-Eye 1947
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Frederick Kiesler Totem for All Religions 1947
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Frederick Kiesler E. E. Cummings 1948
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Frederick Kiesler Study for Galaxy (1947-48)
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Frederick Kiesler Study for Galaxy 1947-48
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project. Plan of first mezzanine 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Galaxy 1947-48 (base remade 1951)
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Frederick Kiesler Letter to Philip Johnson c.1952
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project 1950–1960
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Study for Color Clock 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Study for Color Clock 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Plan of second mezzanine 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Section 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Interior perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Interior perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Interior perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Section 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Sections of storage areas and perspectives 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Study for Color Clock 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Interior perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Plan 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Plan 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Exterior perspective and Color Clock 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Plan 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Interior perspective 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Section 1951
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Frederick Kiesler Endless House Project, Study for lighting 1951
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