Art and a Cup of Joe; Cafes served as both studio and subject matter for an influential group of European artists.(More Than Coffee Was Served: Cafe Culture in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna and Weimar Germany)

Byline: Jennie Yabroff

Starbucks may have popularized the notion of cafe-as-living-room, but students, artists and self-styled bohemians have been lingering over cooling cups of joe in public spaces for centuries. A delightful new exhibit titled "More Than Coffee Was Served: Cafe Culture in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna and Weimar Germany," at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York (through Nov. 25), celebrates the role of the coffeehouse as both hangout and inspiration for George Grosz, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, KA[currency]the Kollwitz and other artist habitues of the Starbucks of their day.

As sociologist Ray Oldenburg has noted, cafes are prime examples of "third places": public gathering spaces outside the home and workplace that foster community and democracy. Whether low-ceilinged, dimly lit German beer halls or grand Viennese KaffeehA[currency]user, cafes provided the artists displayed in this exhibit a place to work, socialize and plot social revolution long into the night--all for the price of a cup of coffee.

In Vienna, Klimt, Schiele and the modernist architect Adolf Loos were among the regulars at Cafe Central and Cafe Sperl, both still in operation. These opulent coffee palaces could be considered works of art themselves, with their marble-topped tables, arched ceilings and formally dressed waiters ferrying drinks on silver trays. But while many of the works in the exhibit are set in cafes, they are often indicated by little more than a sketched-in table and chair, suggesting the generic idea of "cafe" rather than any specific location. It was the people who made the scene--and almost every picture contains at least one human form--in pieces ranging from Grosz's solitary, blue-washed "Cafe Guest" to Ludwig Meidner's playful, cacophonous "In a Cafe," a pencil-and-ink cartoon of a cafe so packed with chaotic life that even the saltshakers appear to vibrate on the tables.

Klimt is perhaps the best known of these former cafe patron-artists. In contrast to his highly publicized Adele Bloch-Bauer portraits and nature scenes scheduled for auction Nov. 8 at Christie's, the four portraits on view here--three sketches and an oil painting--reveal the artist's softer, more contemplative side. Both his ...