Otto Prutscher: Allgestalter der Wiener Moderne(Universal Designer of Viennese Modernism)

摘要

Published on the 70th anniversary of the death of Viennese modern designer and architect Otto Prutscher (1880-1949), this exhibition catalogue is a useful companion to previous publications about the designer's life and work.In both English and German, this publication will be accessible to a wider audience than the most recent catalogue from 1997, which appeared primarily in German with select chapters translated into English. The present volume therefore takes the important opportunity to revisit the life and career of Prutscher, introducing him to a new body of readers. The introduction by MAK director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein puts Prutscher in league with better-known contemporaries Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, the 'Universalkiinstler' (universal artist) who was recently the subject of a MAK exhibition in 2018.The choice of 'Allgestalter' (all-around or universal designer) to describe Prutscher calls to mind a sense of function and well-rounded ease, if not the grand omnipresence of the uni-versal artist of the Gesamtkunstwerk (although he was a noted proponent and practitioner of the concept).