MAK Permanent Collection Historicism Art Nouveau

Historicism Art Nouveau

Name: Free admission at the MAK with the STANDARD under your arm
Start: 2024-12-14T10:00
End: 2024-12-14T18:00
Location: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

The Permanent Collection Historicism Art Nouveau was installed by the US artist Barbara Bloom in 1993 in the course of the reopening of the museum after its general renovation. It has since been on display almost without changes to its original design. The silhouettes of bentwood armchairs projected onto semi-transparent partition walls turn the room it one of the highlights among the MAK’s artistically staged Collection rooms.

MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

The success of the Thonet company is somewhat legendary in the history of modern design. In the mid-19th century, the German carpenter Michael Thonet, who had developed his own wood bending technique for furniture in the 1830s, moved to Vienna. By consistently optimizing his process, he succeeded in founding the probably largest furniture empire of his times. In 1856, he registered a patent for bending solid wood.

In addition to improving his wood bending technique, Thonet's groundbreaking achievement can primarily be seen in the fact that he provided a modern industrial product as an alternative to the chairs that had been handcrafted by cabinet makers for centuries. This industrial product was produced in much larger quantities and conquered new markets worldwide. Especially in the field of seating furniture, independent products were created that were not only aesthetically pleasing due to their casualness but were also accessible to a wide range of buyers due to their affordable price. With model no. 14, which was produced from 1859 on, Thonet furthermore created one of the world’s best-selling pieces of furniture—today, it is considered one of the undisputed classics of modern industrial design.

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Credits

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Barbara Bloom

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Gebrüder Thonet, Chair, Model No. 8, Vienna, ca. 1860

Sofa, Model No. 4, Thonet Brothers, ca. 1858/1860, MAK H 2978/1988

Rocking Sofa, Design: Gebrüder Thonet/August Thonet, ca. 1875, MAK H 2935/1987

After well-known architects such as Adolf Loos, Otto Wagner, and Josef Hoffmann had given new impulses to bentwood furniture in Vienna around the turn of the century—primarily however commissioned by the competition J. & J. Kohn—the Thonet company regained importance in the 1920s: Many international architects used both classic as well as newly designed models for their interior designs. After World War II, the company's various national branches were run independently, some of which exist to this day.

It is difficult to paint a picture of the history of design without mentioning the name Thonet. Almost every larger collection of modern furniture has at least one Thonet chair. From its extensive collection of bentwood furniture, the MAK here presents an overview of 100 years of Thonet production as well as of competing companies and thus makes it possible to experience a piece of design and consumer history.