Josef Frank: Against Design exhibition – MAK Vienna

Austrian architect and designer Josef Frank, a key figure in the Modernist Movement in architecture, is the subject of the exhibition continuing until June 12 at MAK, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts and Contemporary Art in Vienna.
A very prolific designer, Josef Frank worked primarily in interior design, creating a vast series of furnishings and textiles. MAK has acquired almost all his existing furniture for the exhibition, from the first apartment the architect decorated in Vienna in 1910, accompanying the objcts with photographs and models.

The exhibition “Josef Frank: Against Design” offers a vast cross-section of the figure of the architect and his work, from his architectural designs to his interiors, furnishings and theoretical work. Between 1929 and 1932 he supervised the Wiener Werkbundsiedlung public housing complex, inviting prominent architects such as Hugo Häring, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos, Richard Neutra, Ernst Plischke, Gerrit Rietveld, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, and Oskar Strnad to work with him on it.
In 1933 Josef Frank emigrated to Sweden to escape growing antisemitism, designing furnishings and fabrics for Svenskt Tenn which had a major impact on post-war Swedish design.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Title: Josef Frank: Against Design
Curators: Hermann Czech, Sebastian Hackenschmidt (curatore MAK Furniture and Woodwork Collection)
Dates: December 16 2015 – June 12 2016
Location: MAK – Vienna Austria www.MAK.at

Images courtesy of MAK
Exhibition Views © MAK/Aslan Kudrnofsky
Josef Frank Portrait, ca. 1960 © Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm, Sweden
Chairs © MAK/Georg Mayer
fabric, coffee table, stool © Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm, Sweden
Villa Beer, Vienna, 1929-1931 © Stefan Oláh
House at the Werkbundausstellung (Weißenhofsiedlung), Stuttgart, 1927 Photo: © MAK
Ortmann housing settlement Pernitz, 1921 © Hermann Czech
Bunzl House Chimanistraße, Vienna (19th district), 1936, Photographer: Martin Gerlach © MAK

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