Carl Aubock

Carl Auböck (1900-1957) was one of the leading lights of Austrian modernism although he remains a relatively obscure figure.

Born in Vienna, he studied at the city's Academy of Fine Art and then at the Bauhaus (where he trained under Johannes Itten) before returning to his home town to work in his father's metal-working workshop, Werkstätte Carl Auböck.

Auböck proceeded to design a range of curios, ornamental pieces and household objects that brought a distinctive new modern sensibility to the traditional bronze figures known as Wiener Bronzen (collectible trinkets and souvenirs, often in the form of animals). Exquisitely made, profoundly tactile and often evincing a whimsical humour, Auböck's designs of the 1940s and 50s were to become much sought-after cult objects, collected by modernist luminaries such as Walter Gropius and Charles and Ray Eames. 

The Werkstätte Carl Auböck is now run by the fourth generation of the family, and continues to produce the designs that made Carl Auböck's name.