Wenzel Hablik

Who was Wenzel Hablik?

Wenzel August Hablik, also known as Wenceslav Hablik and Wilhelm August Hablik, was a painter and graphic artist, architect, designer, and craftsman of the early twentieth century, associated with German Expressionism.

Hablik was born in Brüx, Bohemia. In later life he recalled that at the age of six, he found a specimen of crystal, and saw in it "magical castles and mountains" that would later appear in his art.

More pragmatically, he trained as a master cabinetmaker, in Teplitz, Vienna, and Prague. He settled in Itzehoe in 1907, where he pursued architectural and interior design projects. Hablik produced designs for furniture, textiles, tapestries, jewelry, cutlery, and wallpapers. He married the weaver and fabric designer Lisbeth Lindemann in 1917; they shared a workshop and studio in Itzehoe.

Hablik became best known, however, for his etchings and paintings and his links with major German Expressionist figures and movements, including the Arbeitsrat für Kunst and the Glass Chain. In 1909 Hablik published his Creative Forces, "a portfolio of twenty etchings portraying a voyage through an imaginary universe of crystalline structures" that "represents the most significant accomplishment of his career." Hablik also published other portfolios of his etchings, The Sea and Architectural Cycle — Utopia. Some of Hablik's designs, particularly of lamps and small sculptures, relate to and express the "utopian crystalline" forms of his etchings.