Flower Garden
The wallpaper "Flower Garden" by Felice Rix-Ueno appears in the Voliere in two places: on one side of the room in a colored version, and on the other side in shades of gray. In both instances, the historical wallpaper designs serve as atmospheric carriers for contemporary artworks. In one case, they are two cage dioramas by József Csató, and in the other, three images from the series "Parrot Perspective" by Edith Payer. The grasses and flowers depicted on the wallpaper create the habitat for these passengers/residents.
Felice Rix-Ueno, alongside Maria Likarz, Friederike "Fritzi" Löw, and Vally Wieselthier, was one of the four most important women artists of the Wiener Werkstätte. She designed textiles, graphic arts, enamel works, toys, home accessories, and wallpapers. During her studies, Rix-Ueno became interested in Japanese art, particularly the stencil-dyeing techniques known as katagami. The East Asian landscape painting tradition, which arranges individual motif elements loosely on a surface, also seems to have inspired her. After marrying the Japanese architect Isaburo Ueno in 1925, who worked in Josef Hoffmann’s office, the couple founded their own studio in Kyoto, where Felice Rix-Ueno was in charge of interior design. She continued to work for Wiener Werkstätten until 1931.