He responded to the geometry of WW founders Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser with opulent designs derived from nature; he bestowed upon everyday objects a complexity that deliberately subverted logic and utility. Peche underpinned his approach theoretically with his book The Burning Bush, in which he called for the “overcoming of utility” in order to achieve a new artistic expression. The trained architect turned to the decorative arts in 1911 and experimented with various materials—silver, glass, ceramics, leather, and paper. He designed jewelry, furniture, and exhibition displays as well as sensational fabric and wallpaper patterns.

After more than 25 years, the MAK is once again dedicating a major exhibition to the “enfant terrible” of the Wiener Werkstätte. PECHE POP shows the fascinating impact that Peche’s work had and still has on 20th and 21st century design: from the Art Deco style to postmodernism and the present day. As early as the 1920s/30s, there were a number of Peche epignones who mainly reproduced individual motifs.