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'Fitted Like a Glove': Wittgenstein's House for his Sister in Vienna, 1926-28

Monday 9 November 2015, 4.30PM

Speaker(s): Whitney Davis (University of York and University of California at Berkeley)

Between 1926 and 1928, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (in collaboration with his friend the architect Paul Engelmann) Kundmangasse 19, Vienna, photo c. 1975designed and built a house in Vienna for his sister Margarethe (Gretl). This well-known work of modernist architecture has often been interpreted as an expression of Wittgenstein's philosophical propositions, including his famous gnomic statement that 'architecture is a gesture', and in light of his long-standing interest in mechanical engineering.

The present lecture goes in a different direction, exploring the house as a complex collaboration with Gretl - it was designed to showcase her art collection (including classical casts and major works of Viennese modernism) and to be a frame for her high-society way of life (one that Wittgenstein didn't share) as a patron of contemporary sculpture and music. The house became a kind of dialogue between brother and sister about their forms of life and in the end perhaps served as a subjective bridge between their different identities and specifically their sexualities.

Image: Kundmangasse 19, Vienna, photo c. 1975

Location: The Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul