MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
Ringstrasse museum of design, craft and architecture, with Wiener Werkstätte and Vienna 1900 holdings.
Founded in 1863 as the Imperial Royal Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, the MAK was the first museum of its kind on the European mainland and was modelled on the South Kensington Museum in London. Heinrich von Ferstel designed its brick building on the Stubenring in an Italian Renaissance revival manner, with sgraffito and terracotta decoration; it opened in 1871 and was extended in 1909. An applied arts school was attached from the outset, and the museum's name was shortened to MAK in 1986.
The collections cover glass, ceramics, metalwork, furniture, textiles, Asian art and graphic design, with the archive of the Wiener Werkstätte at their core and celebrated holdings of Thonet bentwood furniture and Klimt's working drawings for the Stoclet Frieze. From 1993 the permanent galleries were reinstalled by invited contemporary artists, each given a room to arrange, and the museum also runs a contemporary art depot in the Gefechtsturm Arenbergpark and the Schindler House in Los Angeles.
Highlights
- Founded 1863, the first applied arts museum in continental Europe
- Ferstel's brick Renaissance revival building of 1871 on the Stubenring
- Wiener Werkstätte archive and Klimt's Stoclet Frieze designs
- Permanent galleries staged by contemporary artists since 1993
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