The iconic, handmade design classics of the Carl Auböck workshop have influenced Austrian design for four generations. The MAK is devoting a comprehensive works exhibition to this legendary manufactory—that to this day operates in the Bernardgasse of Vienna’s 7th District—exploring the materiality of Auböck’s hugely diverse creations in brass, wood, horn, leather, and natural fibers. The roughly 400 exhibits in ICONIC AUBÖCK: A Workshop Shapes Austria’s Concept of Design—including numerous unique items and prototypes—provide insight into the workshop’s characteristic designs, that were often ahead of their time and attained worldwide recognition.
The MAK exhibition focuses on the workshop’s stylistically formative interwar and postwar years and on the experimental 1980s. It presents objects of everyday use that transform home interiors into testing grounds for beautiful objects and witty artistic statements from the Carl Auböck workshop’s rich repertoire—to include corkscrews, chess sets, and clocks. These remarkable designs—from paperweights to tree tables and lampstands—are mostly the work of Carl Auböck II (1900–1957) who—inspired by the Bauhaus, where he studied from 1919—amalgamated local and international styles.
MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst
The role of applied art in shaping our living spaces is the focus of the MAK, which operates at the interface of design, architecture and contemporary art in order to create new perspectives and explore borderline areas. The MAK aims to provide answers to the question of how design can help shape the world and expand possibilities for action and decision-making.
ICONIC AUBÖCK - A Workshop Shapes Austria’s Concept of Design
15 May 2024 - 6 Jan 2025
MAK - Museum für angewandte Kunst
Stubenring 5, 1010 Wien, Österreich
