Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Vienna. MAK - Museum for Applied Arts

Design is one of the main features of MAK. The museum shows furniture, glass, china, silver, and textiles from the Middle Ages to the present day. Precious crafts from the Wiener Werkstätte, bentwood furniture by Thonet and art nouveau highlights such as the gilded design of Gustav Klimt for the frieze of the Stoclet Palais in Brussels.

  Dubsky room in the MAK show collection

Bentwood chairs by Thonet are still used in Viennese coffeehouses, and armchairs from the Middle Ages to the present day look absolutely inviting. Biedermeier sofas surprise with pink, green, yellow, or red colors, because the Biedermeier style, with its simple and clear shapes, is considered the cradle of design.
Glass, china, silver, and textiles of the highest quality and in unusual designs were produced at the Wiener Werkstätte, which was founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. A hammered silver service by Hoffmann or a black and white vase will thrill not only lovers of art nouveau. In November 2012, the MAK show collection "Vienna 1900" was redesigned and dedicated in its entirety to the development of Viennese arts and crafts between 1890 and 1938. The exhibition rooms recount the story of the search for the modern style via the creation of a unique Viennese style to the confrontation of the Viennese style with the international style and ending with the National Socialists seizing power in Austria.
Also new is the MAK permanent collection Asia, which presents Chinese porcelain, Japanese lacquer work, Japanese wood cuts and Japanese coloring stencil plates. The MAK permanent collection Carpets was reorganized in spring 2014. And the new MAK Design Laboratory makes references between art and everyday life on almost 2,000 m² in the former "Collection of Studies" (Studiensammlung). Contemporary art by Donald Judd, James Turrell and others and 12 sofas by Franz West span the artistic range to the present day. Young, sophisticated design to take away can be found in the MAK Design Shop. After visiting the MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, guests are welcome at its restaurant Salonplafond.

Columned hall at the MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts  Buddha Sakyamuni in the lotus position from the Qing Dynasty in the Asia collection of the MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Arts
Detail from Gustav Klimt's "Expectation"  Exhibition room in the MAK show collections

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