ICONIC AUBÖCK - A Workshop Shapes Austria's Concept of Design

Edited by: MAK , Lilli Hollein and Bärbel Vischer

The iconic design classics that are still handcrafted today by the Auböck workshop, now in its fourth generation in Vienna, were ahead of their time from the very beginning and have shaped Austrian design across generations.

The exhibition ICONIC AUBÖCK focuses on the style-defining era of the interwar and post-war period through to the experimental 1980s. Inspired by the Bauhaus, Carl Auböck (1900–1957) brought local and international movements together and shaped the characteristic Auböck design, from the paperweight to the tree table or lamp design. He incorporated the concept of the objet trouvé, the found object, into his avant-garde repertoire of forms. The work of sculptor and textile artist Mara Uckunowa (1895–1987), who met and married Auböck at the Bauhaus in Weimar, will be presented for the first time. Their son Carl Auböck (1924–1993) focused on the transformative potential of industrial design and, inspired by his studies in the USA and collaborations with international designers, brought the workshop worldwide recognition.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition at the MAK: ICONIC AUBÖCK, at the MAK Central Room, 
15.5.2024—13.10.2024.

Birkhäuser Publishing, Basel 2024
German/English, Size 24 x 17 cm
186 pages, paperback