MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
Artists' Books on Tour - Artists' Competition and Mobile Museum
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
This EU-sponsored project was initiated in cooperation with the Museum of Decorative Arts (UPM) in Prague and the International Center of Graphic Arts (MGLC) in Ljubljana for the purpose of
introducing the genre of the artist’s book to a broader public. The project began on 1 June 2010. Its main tasks consist in staging a competition on the artist’s book theme among European (book) artists, followed by the evaluation of the submissions by an international jury, awarding of prizes to the best works, and presentation of selected works as part of a mobile museum which is to tour through several stations within Europe (Vienna, Prague, Ljubljana). Furthermore, the MAK will be revising and expanding its database of artist’s books; these holdings will also be digitized and made publicly accessible. This project’s completion is planned for late 2012.
Baroque Library
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
One of the most valuable holdings of the Library and Works on Paper Collection is the 19th century collection of illustrated books from the period between the 15th and 18th centuries. A database has now been developed to formally record and substantively analyze these previously little-known holdings, and a thesaurus has also been created for indexing purposes; so far, 800 volumes have been examined in a scholarly manner.
Hans Herzheimer’s Chronicle
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
With the chronicle by Hans Herzheimer, covering the years 1514 to 1519, the MAK’s collection of manuscripts is home to a post-incunabulum of unique value. Alongside the everyday life of his era, “Salt Baron” Herzheimer also describes his encounters with Emperor Maximilian I and Martin Luther. The entire over-300-page manuscript has now been digitized, and parts of it have already been transcribed by a Leipzig-based researcher.
Commercial Graphic Design
(financed by the Joseph Binder Foundation)
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
’s extensive holdings of invitation cards, postcards, playing cards, bookplates, brochures, papers, wallpaper patterns and closure stamps in order to present an overview of Austrian commercial graphic design. Another goal is to reinforce the MAK’s position as a competence center for graphic design. These holdings are then to be presented online with the simultaneous publication of a standard work on commercial graphic design in 20th and 21st century Austria. In 2010, all of the congratulatory cards from the Biedermeier period (numbering 370), the extensive collection of book-plates (around 3,000) and two thirds of the fashion plates from the 18th and 19th centuries (531) were organized, entered into a database and examined in a scholarly manner.
Hand Drawings
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
Over the past few years, all the museum’s freehand drawings of the 16th to 18th centuries (with the exception of those from the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory) have been studied, entered in a database, scanned and remounted on acid-free cardboard (800 leaves in all). In 2010, work was begun on the holdings of hand drawings from the 19th century (150 leaves) as well as illuminations and missals from the 13th to 15th centuries (300 exemplars).
Posters
Project supervisor: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection
The digitization of posters was continued, with 1,600 posters being inventoried and examined. 5,000 of the altogether 20,000 posters have yet to be digitized.
MAK Design Info Pool
DIP Internet Database
Project supervisor: Heidemarie Caltik, MAK Curator Design Info Pool
In 2010, the Internet database was filled in according to its division among the three areas of “Key Works of Austrian Design,” “Current Design” and “Crossover of Art, Architecture and Design.” In the “Key Works” area, the winners of Austrian State Prizes from 2009, as well as from 1988, 1987 and 1986, were completed. Furthermore, the contents of important publications on Austrian design which were released between 1986 and the present, but have since become unavailable, have also been included in the database. In the “Current Design” area, missing projects from the years between 2008 and 2010 were added. At the same time, projects by designers who have worked closely with the MAK at the interfaces of art,
’s virtual design collection.
Special Archive Design Pioneers – General
Project supervisor: Heidemarie Caltik, MAK Curator Design Info Pool
One of the MAK’s most recent content-related innovations is an online research platform devoted to Austrian design pioneers. In focus here are designers who develop strategies which are
exemplary in the way they oppose the failings of their eras, their societies and/or civilization at large. For this project, experts from all over Europe work to determine key works based on a system of qualitative evaluation, and they comment on the life-long themes and overall oeuvres of these works’ designers. The central tasks of this special archive include acquiring the artistic estates of contemporary artists and compiling extensive source archives containing reception-related documents (newspaper clippings, work descriptions, photos, publications, visual media).
Special Archive: Design Pioneers – Carol Christian Poell
Poell’s innovative material, production and cutting techniques have been documented and researched by the MAK for several years now. The findings of this research can be accessed at the web portal [www.carolchristianpoell.mak.at]. 2010 also saw commentaries and thematic essays compiled for a planned publication; currently,
MAK Collection Asia
Reexamination of artworks from the Ming period
Project supervisor: Johannes Wieninger, MAK Curator Asia
In connection with the exhibition “Ming. Interlude,” which was shown from 21 April to 3 October 2010 in the MAK Permanent Collection Asia, the museum’s holdings of Chinese art from between the 14th and the 17th centuries were reexamined and cataloged anew.
Asia and Europe in the 18th century
Project supervisor: Johannes Wieninger, MAK Curator Asia
As a continuation of the project “Asia and Europe, 1500–1700,” which was concluded in 2009 with the major exhibition “Global:Lab,” the work on the project of the 18th century began, which deals above all with the relationship between Europe (particularly Austria) and East Asia (particularly China and Japan). The extensive MAK Collection represents the core of this work, which will also encompass holdings and archives at other Austrian cultural institutions. This project is intended to culminate in an exhibition and a large-scale publication.
Sumi-e
Project supervisor: Johannes Wieninger, MAK Curator Asia
The MAK owns 2,700 Japanese ink paintings from the Edo period (17th–19th centuries) which were originally part of the collection of Heinrich Siebold. These extensive holdings represent a unique documentation of East Asian iconography as it was passed on and practiced in Kano- painting. Up until now, there has only existed an approximate catalog; no scholarly study has taken place. It is not just works by important Japanese artists that make this collection so valuable; illumination of the collection’s overall iconographic aspect will serve to outstandingly complement and reinterpret those parts of the collection which are shown frequently. Planned activities include the works’ cataloging, digitization and tagging with keywords, as well as their publication online. Preparatory work for this research project commenced in 2010.
MAK Collection of Glass and Ceramics
J. & L. Lobmeyr – Collection Database Online
Project supervisor: Katja Miksovsky, MAK Curator Glass and Ceramics
The company of J. & L. Lobmeyr (established in Vienna in 1823
and still in existence today) was the leading glass producer of the Habsburg lands, known for both superior quality and artful design. With nearly 600 objects, the MAK owns one of the most important collections of Lobmeyr glasses ranging from the 19th to the 21st centuries. The entirety of this unique collection was given scholarly attention, with images and detailed labeling made, and in late 2010 it was put online in chronological order as the first part of the Glass Collection.
Reinstallation of the Glass Study Collection
Project supervisor: Katja Miksovsky, MAK Curator Glass and Ceramics
Parts of the MAK Study Collection Glass were redone to
accommodate gifts by the J. & L. Lobmeyr company.
Continued Inventory of Ceramic Holdings
Project supervisor: Katja Miksovsky, MAK Curator Glass and Ceramics
The MAK’s extensive holdings of ceramic objects, stored at the Gefechtsturm Arenbergpark due to space constraints, were inventoried, inspected and then studied and photographed.
Parts of the holdings were stored for easy access in new shelving systems with the goal of establishing a display depot of sorts. The following collection areas have been treated so far: “Manufactory of Friedrich Goldscheider,” “Medieval Vessels” and “Ceramic Objects from the Figdor Collection.” The MAK collection of tiled stoves is currently being worked on; to date, three ovens have been revised.
MAK Collection Metal and Wiener Werkstätte Archive
Digitization of the Wiener Werkstätte Photo Albums
Project supervisor: Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, MAK Curator Metal and Wiener Werkstätte Archive
Around 8,000 black-and-white photos from the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte have been scanned and compiled to form a database. All necessary information on individual objects, such as designer, notes on any external production, year of design, model number and material, has been taken from the model books and card catalog of the Wiener Werkstätte Archive and associated with the photographs. This project was begun in January of 2009, and the presentation of these holdings is projected to go online in early 2011.
Wiener Werkstätte Postcards
Project supervisor: Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, MAK Curator Metal and Wiener Werkstätte Archive
Between 1907 and 1919, professors and graduates of the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule [the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts], as well as freelance artists, designed a total of 925 different postcards for the Wiener Werkstätte. The fronts and backs of the postcards, including different variants, were scanned, and the cards were entered into a database along with the relevant information. In the autumn of 2010, the postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte were published on the MAK’s website.
MAK Collection Furniture and Woodworks and
MAK Collection Design
Research team: Martina Fineder, Thomas Geisler and Sebastian Hackenschmidt
Nomadic Furniture III
The research project Nomadic Future III takes the increasing current demand for do-it-yourself instructions for furniture and furnishings as an occasion to trace the movement from its origins up to the present day. The publications Nomadic Furniture I & II by Victor Papanek and James Hennessey (1973/74) and Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazione project (1974) are important references and starting points in exploring the changing conditions in which DIY design today presents itself as a contemporary phenomenon. The fact that development and production processes in design have fundamentally changed since the 1970s is easily verifiable by looking at present-day methods and means of production. But how does the new DIY movement relate to the socio-cultural motives of the '70s, the criticism of mass production and mass consumption, of Modernist rationalism? What are the motives that inform production today? Is it the demand for more self-determination and participation, a decentralization of the production of goods deemed necessary for the sake of sustainability, is it economic conditions? For decades, the DIY method has been considered as an alternative design strategy not least because it facilitates a more immediate—and hence more easily manageable—interface between design, production, and use. The current and ongoing quest for socially and ecologically committed design urgently calls for a more intensive interrogation of the method. The Nomadic Furniture III research project will inform a MAK exhibition scheduled for May 2013 and it will both summarize current trends in the DIY movement and survey its historical and theoretical foundations in an exhibition catalogue.
MAK Collection Textiles and Carpets
Balkan Textiles at the MAK
Project supervisor: Barbara Karl, MAK Curator Textiles and Carpets
The MAK holds a collection of high-quality Balkan textiles, some of which were acquired for an exhibition in 1907. Since then, this collection has rarely been shown and has remained virtually
unresearched. Therefore, the task at hand was to do basic research: the collection was worked through systematically according to various ordering criteria (region, chronology, style), information missing from the database was added (photos, descriptions, dates, examples for comparison, literature, provenance, etc.), and a literature list as well as a list of comparable collections worldwide was compiled.
Hungary, Slovakia and “Red-White” at the MAK
Project supervisor: Barbara Karl, MAK Curator Textiles and Carpets
The MAK Collection Textiles is home to ca. 120 ethnographic textile objects from Hungary and Slovakia, as well as 150 pieces of red-and-white embroidery which have for the most part been neither studied nor methodically categorized. The objective of this project is to fundamentally organize this part of the collection, to document it photographically, and in particular to attribute the red-and-white embroideries to their regions of origin.
English Arts-and-Crafts Fabrics at the MAK
Project supervisor: Barbara Karl, MAK Curator Textiles and Carpets
The MAK Collection is home to around 500 high-quality British Arts-and-Crafts textiles, including designs by William Morris and Charles F. A. Voysey. These holdings were studied according to criteria including artists, producers and styles, and the information gleaned was entered into the database and is to be put online as part of the MAK textiles database. Additionally, scholarly attention was paid to these textiles’ role as forerunners of Austrian Jugendstil fabrics.
English Arts-and-Crafts Tapestries at the MAK
Project supervisor: Barbara Karl, MAK Curator Textiles and Carpets
The MAK’s collection of British Arts-and-Crafts textiles was worked on in a three-month project. In a further step, the Arts-and-Crafts tapestry pattern books, containing over 250 individual tapestries and bordures, were also sorted and analyzed. English periodicals from the period between 1870 and 1910 were examined with an eye to comparable examples. As part of a further follow-up project, this collection is to be put online in the collection database along with the Arts-and-Crafts textiles.
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