Austria and Hungary at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair: A Hint of the End

Abstract

This article examines the Austrian participation at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, focusing particularly on the display of art. Spread across two venues, the Austrian Pavilion and the Palace of Fine Arts, the display, with contributions from the Mánes Association of Fine Artists, Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka,” the Hagenbund, and the Vienna Künstlergenossenschaft illustrates the changes taking place in Cisleithanian art at the time, with the emergence and increased recognition of nationally organized art societies, whose very existence questioned the long-standing supremacy of Vienna art institutions. A further contrast is made with the Hungarian art exhibition at the same fair. Unlike the Austrian exhibit, housed in its own free-standing exhibition space, the much more modest Hungarian exhibit was divided in two. Fine arts were displayed in the Palace of Fine Arts, while decorative arts and crafts were displayed in a pavilion built inside of the exhibition hall. The author ends by contrasting the 1904 exhibition spaces with those of the 1900 Paris exhibition.