In cooperation with Gmundner Keramik and the Studio Vivienne Westwood, the MAK presents an extraordinary and exquisite artist’s tableware based on a design by Andreas Kronthaler, Creative Director of Vivienne Westwood. The Special Plate Edition manufactured by Gmundner Keramik MAK × Gmundner Ceramics × Vivienne Westwood fuses Vivienne Westwood’s design and traditional craftsmanship and appeals to collectors and lovers of ceramic art.
The Special Plate Edition was created for the MAK artists’ dinner on December 5, 2024, which was part of the exhibition PECHE POP: Dagobert Peche and his traces in the present celebrated the creative power of design. It is the second joint cooperation after MAK × Gmundner Ceramics × Jakob Lena Knebl. The proceeds support the MAK.
The special edition, consisting of six different place and dessert plates, shows drawings and graphics by Vivienne Westwood, including the “pirate arm” and the cutlass from the World’s End Boutique in London, as a nod to the plunder of historical ideas, as well as a Greek vase as a symbol of the origins of Western culture and an inexhaustible source of inspiration. More plates are with the words ACTIVE, RESIST, CULTURE, FUTURE also with hand drawings that call for saving the ocean and the rainforest, the blue and green lungs of our earth, with the words Save the Ocean and Save the Rainforest. The selection is inspired by Dagobert Peche and his influence on the world of design.
The only place to find ideas is by looking at what people did in the past. It’s the way you can be original – Vivienne Westwood
Andreas Kronthaler (* 1966, Tyrol) is the creative director and husband of the late Vivienne Westwood. After completing five years of training as a jeweler at the art school in Graz in 1980, he first studied industrial design with Carl Auböck at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He switched to fashion class, where he met Vivienne Westwood. In 1989 she invited him to her London studio to further develop a series of Renaissance-inspired clothing designs for the 1991 Spring/Summer collection: Cut, Slash & Pull. Vivienne Westwood and Andreas Kronthaler married in 1993 and worked together for the next 30 years.
MAK General Director Lilli Hollein: “Artists and designers have always contributed to the planning and design of festivals with designs and ideas. With the MAK artists’ dinner we are continuing the tradition of artists’ festivals, and I am very pleased that Andreas Kronthaler, after the first edition with Jakob Lena Knebl, has been won over to design the second edition of the artists’ tableware with Gmundner ceramics could. I would like to thank you for this extraordinary cooperation and am pleased that a special edition with designs by Vivienne Westwood / Andreas Kronthaler was made possible.”
Andreas Kronthaler: “I am very happy to contribute to this important event in my home country of Austria.”
Alexander Köck, authorized representative of the Gmundner Keramik Manufaktur: “This cooperation combines our centuries-old craftsmanship and Austrian cultural heritage with the visionary design world of Vivienne Westwood. We are proud to bring tradition and modernity together in a unique form with this special edition.”
Die Special Plate Edition MAK × Gmundner Ceramics × Vivienne Westwood is available for Ꞓ 1,200 in the MAK Design Shop and at MAKdesignshop.at.
Press photos are below MAK.at/presse ready for download.