NEW YORK, NY.- Neue Galerie New York announced today a major gift from the collection of the late Leonard A. Lauder of more than 1,000 postcards produced by the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops) during the period 1907-20. The Wiener Werkstätte was founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann and designer Koloman Moser. In 1907 the Wiener Werkstätte began publishing a numbered series of postcards. Capitalizing on the widespread international craze for the postcard, then a relatively new communications medium, the Wiener Werkstätte promoted these as small works of art that could be accompanied by a brief message and even marketed frames to display them. Although millions of the postcards were printed, today they are highly collectible; some motifs are exceedingly rare.
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“We are forever grateful for Leonard Lauder's friendship and support of our exhibitions and programs over many years,” said Renée Price, founding Director of Neue Galerie New York. “It is remarkable that this extraordinary collection of Wiener Werkstätte postcards will permanently enter the Neue Galerie's collection intact. The postcards are a vital example of the innovative, graphic, modern style of the Wiener Werkstätte and include artists that are well known and obscure. It is an important record of the range of artists from the era.”
Leonard A. Lauder (1933-2025) was the elder brother of Neue Galerie cofounder Ronald S. Lauder, and is known worldwide for his successful, decades-long stewardship of the Estée Lauder Companies, founded by their mother Estée Lauder in 1946. His legacy is immense, as he was also one of the nation’s leading philanthropists and supporters of the arts.
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In 2010 the Neue Galerie presented the first major museum exhibition held in the United States devoted exclusively to Wiener Werkstätte postcards: “Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.” The exhibition later traveled to The Wolfsonian–Florida International University (2012-13) and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, today the Frist Art Museum (2015). A fully illustrated catalogue raisonné of the Wiener Werkstätte postcards accompanied the exhibition, the first such compendium to appear in English, still available at the Neue Galerie Book Store. The Book Store also offers an exclusive range of stationery and paper goods that draw from the Leonard A. Lauder Wiener Werkstätte Postcard Collection.
“The Neue Galerie is the perfect home for this collection, which has been in the making for more than 30 years,” said the late Leonard A. Lauder upon the opening of the 2010 exhibition, when he first announced his intentions to donate the collection to the museum. “Although produced as postcards, the Wiener Werkstätte cards are really original prints, created for a wide audience as part of a project to make beautiful objects for everyday use. I am thrilled that the Neue Galerie appreciates them as individual works of art.”
“I am so proud to welcome this collection, and wish to thank my late brother Leonard for his generosity and foresight in making it available to the Neue Galerie,” said Ronald S. Lauder, President of the Neue Galerie. “He has kindly lent works to the museum in the past. But with this gift, he raised his involvement to the highest level.”
Collectively, the postcards represent an important element in the overall program of the Wiener Werkstätte. Many of the postcards were designed to celebrate holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Fashion, both contemporary and historical, became another popular subject, along with humorous topics and favorite tourist sites of the period. All of the major designers who worked for the firm were contributors in this medium including Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Dagobert Peche, and Egon Schiele. Other noteworthy artists whose names may be less familiar are Moriz Jung, Rudolf Kalvach, Mela Koehler, and Maria Likarz, all of whom were especially gifted in this graphic medium.
A selection of Wiener Werkstätte postcards from the collection are currently displayed at The Jewish Museum in the special exhibition, “Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstätte,” on view through November 15, 2026. The Neue Galerie's forthcoming “25th Anniversary Exhibition,” which debuts in autumn 2026, will also feature a number of Wiener Werkstätte postcards to spotlight this landmark gift.
