Birth of the Modern

Birth of the Modern: Style and Identity in Vienna 1900 explored the profound redefinition of selfhood in fin-de-siècle Vienna, where radical shifts in art, psychology, and politics intertwined. Created in collaboration with Pandiscio Green, the exhibition catalogue for Neue Galerie New York was designed to reflect the intellectual and aesthetic dynamism of the era, capturing the tensions between tradition and transformation that defined this cultural moment. The design distilled the interplay of fine and decorative arts, mirroring how artists, designers, and thinkers blurred boundaries to forge a new modern identity. As the Financial Times observed, the exhibition “strain[ed] to encompass the totality of Viennese culture at a time when art, architecture, literature, music, journalism, philosophy, psychiatry and theatre waltzed together to the wistful strains of the fading Habsburg regime.” The catalogue itself became an extension of this curatorial vision, offering a layered and immersive experience that reflected the complexity of Vienna 1900—an era both feverishly creative and deeply ambivalent about modernity.