Congratulations to Julie M. Johnson, winner of the 2020 Rath Prize!

Laudatio for the 2020 R. John Rath Prize

This year’s R. John Rath Prize for the best article published in the Austrian History Yearbook goes to Julie M. Johnson for “The Other Legacy of Vienna 1900: The Ars Combinatoria of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis.”

The committee found Johnson’s article to be a readable and engaging approach to the work of artist and designer Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. Johnson’s impressive use of print and visual sources reconstructs the fullness and breadth of Dicker-Brandeis’ art and, importantly, its engagement in politics and social change. Moreover, it also helps to show the legacies of the artistic movements associated with Vienna 1900 and is an exemplary study that brings the work of a woman into the larger story of modern art and design. By doing so, this article does what it outlines for future studies, “To understand the critical legacy of Vienna’s ‘ambivalent modernism,’ then, is not only to acknowledge its negative history, its racism and misogyny, but also to examine forgotten aspects of its positive potential—of interdisciplinary arts, dance, theater, architecture, and the participation of women.”

Bravo!