Lace at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) Vienna
Presented by Lara Steinhäußer
19 January 2025 at 3:30 pm New York time (UTC-5)
An invitation to register for this Zoom webinar will be sent to all current IOLI Members a week before the event.
In her lecture Lace at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) Vienna, presented for the International Organization of Lace, MAK curator Lara Steinhäußer will trace the history of acquisitions, donations, and exhibitions related to lace within the Textiles and Carpets Collection. She will therefore highlight key objects and the historical figures who shaped this segment of the collection. The focus will be particularly on the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with an emphasis on distinctive Jugendstil examples that were created in the context of the k.k. Zentralspitzenkurs (e.g., Josef von Storck, Franziska Hofmanninger). This school, closely affiliated with the Museum of Applied Arts, laid the groundwork for the iconic lace designs of the Wiener Werkstätte (e.g., Dagobert Peche) in the 1910s and 1920s. Interestingly these designs were not only handcrafted but also adapted for the mechanical production of tulle embroideries. Additionally, the contributions of collectors such as Bertha Pappenheim and curator Moritz Dreger to the development of the MAK collection, as well as to the evolution of Austrian lace during this period, will also be explored.
Lara Steinhäußer
Since 2019, Lara Steinhäußer has been responsible for the Textiles and Carpets Collection at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) Vienna, where she has worked since 2011. She completed her studies in Art History at the University of Vienna with a master's thesis titled The Wiener Werkstätte and Paul Poiret. Cooperations, influences and differences in Viennese and Parisian fashion and their media representation between 1903 and 1932. In addition to her research focus on Austrian textile art and fashion of the early 20th century and their international networks, she has been working on the historical development of textile consumption up to slow fashion, leading to exhibition projects such as CRITICAL CONSUMPTION (August 30 2023—September 8 2024). Steinhäußer has also taught at the University of Vienna’s Art History department, addressing the intersections of fashion and architecture. She is currently working on a research project that examines the colonial history of Indian textiles acquired by the MAK in the second half of the 19th century. Her upcoming exhibition, focused on Japanese Meisen Kimonos, will open at the MAK in March 2025.