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Under this heading we will report about interesting exhibitions that deal with the topics of bentwood furniture specifically and design in general. We will present exhibitions, events, openings and guided tours.

2019

On 17 December 2019, the exhibition BENTWOOD AND BEYOND: Thonet and Modern Furniture Design was opened at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna - MAK.

On the occasion of the 200-year anniversary of the company Thonet, the MAK presents an extensive exhibition on Modern furniture. In 1842, the German cabinetmaker Michael Thonet moved to Vienna: Here he was able to perfect his own invention of bentwood furniture and found the greatest furniture empire of the 19th century. With the No 14 Chair produced from 1859 onward, the company Thonet created not only one of the so far most sold pieces of furniture in the world but also an unchallenged classic of design. The exhibition at the MAK shows the fundamental importance of the company Thonet for the design of Modern furniture and places its characteristic and world-famous bentwood furniture into the context of contemporary technological, typological, aesthetic, and historical developments.

The exhibition will be on view until 13.04.2020.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by the catalog "BENTWOOD AND BEYOND: Thonet and Modern Furniture Design" by Sebastian Hackenschmidt and Wolfgang Thillmann, edited by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein and Sebastian Hackenschmidt. German/English, ca. 304 pages with numerous color illustrations. MAK, Vienna/Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2020.

Available as of mid december 2019 at the MAK Design Shop and online at MAKdesignshop.at. From January 2020 also in bookstores for € 49.95






Photos from the opening, press conference and the exhibition