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In 1969, the furniture exhibition Sitzen 69 [Seating 69] took place in the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (today’s MAK) in which a comprehensive selection of dignified “joiner’s chairs” from Scandinavia, Italy, Germany, and Austria was presented. However, the many colorful and trendy seats that today seem so characteristic of this epoch, were missing: The exhibition had made a last heroic attempt to reply to an increasingly pronounced consumer and throwaway society with traditional of high-quality, artisanal furniture.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sitzen 69, the exhibition “SITZEN 69” REVISITED offers an opportunity not only to look back on the era of the 1960s, which was decisive for the development of international design, but also to reconstruct an important chapter in the museum policy of the MAK. Through the meaningful juxtaposition of the dignified joiner’s chairs, which were intended at that time as an impulse for craftsmen, producers, and consumers, and the playful and crazy furniture objects now shown, which have become the epitome of alternative and utopian living concepts of the 1960s, a great omission can be compensated for.
Curator: Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Curator, MAK Furniture and Woodwork Collection
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Sitzen 69, the exhibition “SITZEN 69” REVISITED offers an opportunity not only to look back on the era of the 1960s, which was decisive for the development of international design, but also to reconstruct an important chapter in the museum policy of the MAK. Through the meaningful juxtaposition of the dignified joiner’s chairs, which were intended at that time as an impulse for craftsmen, producers, and consumers, and the playful and crazy furniture objects now shown, which have become the epitome of alternative and utopian living concepts of the 1960s, a great omission can be compensated for.
Curator: Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Curator, MAK Furniture and Woodwork Collection
13.11.2019—23.8.2020
MAK Permanent Collection Historicism Art Nouveau
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Josef Frank, Armchair, Vienna, 1933
Mahogany, solid; rattan; upholstery with black leather cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Mahogany, solid; rattan; upholstery with black leather cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Walter Pichler, Fauteuil Galaxy, Vienna, 1966
Aluminum, riveted; foam padding with red textile cover
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Aluminum, riveted; foam padding with red textile cover
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Joe Colombo, Armchair, Model No. 4801, Italy, 1963
Plywood, bent, with orange painted polyester
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Plywood, bent, with orange painted polyester
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Wolfgang J. Haipl, Chair, Vienna, 1963
Walnut wood, solid, partially laminated and bent; leather
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Walnut wood, solid, partially laminated and bent; leather
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Ole Wanscher, Armchair, Model No. PJ 149, Copenhagen, 1949
Rosewood, solid; wickerwork (rattan); upholstery with leather cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Rosewood, solid; wickerwork (rattan); upholstery with leather cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Pierre Paulin, Seating furniture Tongue, France, 1967
Metal; foam padding with orange jersey cover
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Metal; foam padding with orange jersey cover
© MAK/Georg Mayer
Franz Schuster, Armchair, Model No. 1652, Vienna, 1952
Beech, solid, partially bent; padding made of foam rubber, textile cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell
Beech, solid, partially bent; padding made of foam rubber, textile cover
© MAK/Nathan Murrell