Cabinet for the Kunstschau, 1920

The architect, designer and graphic artist Dagobert Peche (1887–1923) created this cabinet for the 1920 Kunstschau. As part of this exhibition, held at the Museum of Art and Industry (present-day MAK), Peche was afforded the opportunity to furnish an entire room. For the design of this cabinet, the artist used a rectangular basic form, divided into two tiers, with two protruding pilaster strips on the edges. These rest on inverted obelisks, a motif that harks back to Neoclassical furniture art. Above the ledges, the cabinet boasts pointed pyramids painted with rhombuses as a finials. The middle part, which is slightly set back, contains two doors. These and the sides are covered with horizontal relief bands which also take up the rhombus motif and feature three-dimensional carvings in the shape of a female head and stylized grapes. The cabinet is made from coniferous wood painted white, dusty pink and green, and is papered on the inside with a wallpaper designed by Peche. The execution on behalf of the Wiener Werkstätte was entrusted to the cabinetmaker Max Schmidt (1861–1935).

MR, 2021