Museum of Applied Arts

My favorite museum experience on our 5 days in Vienna. The museum is unassuming from the outside but inside it is a huge complex filled with an incredibly variety of art. You can find everything from pottery, quirky furniture, posters, and eco-friendly design from every discipline imaginable. If you love spending time in museums appreciating the art and reading the majority of material, you might want to plan on spending at least 3-5 hours here.

Wonderful museum for those who love Wiener Werkstatte and Succession works. The displays are beautifully designed, but the lighting a little dim and uneven in places--possibly dim for conservation reasons? Anyway, well worth the visit. The cafe is terrific--stylish and with great food and service.

The MAK in Vienna has a unique atmosphere, giving off an oriental, almost Middle Eastern vibe in some areas. It’s easy to enter to the library—just leave your belongings in the lockers, bring your ID, and you’re in. The library is a great spot for studying or working with a laptop, making it a quiet and inspiring place to spend time.

Interesting experience. There were some parts of the exhibitions very well displayed, while others were not so fitting. I have actually spent more than half of the time on the -1 floor. Allocate at least one and a half hours, maybe 2 or 3 if you want to see everything

The Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) was a bit of a mediocre experience. The exhibits on Austrian design were okay, but nothing too exciting. The building is nice, but overall it didn’t really stand out. It’s worth a look if you’re into design, but not a must-see.

The exposition tells the story of Austrian design from the times of Baroque to the modern industrial design. Interesting to observe the impact of talented people in the past and nowadays.

Well curated collection of furniture, some glass and ceramics, emphasizing the early 20th century (secession, arts and crafts, juggendstill). The gallery of chairs was creatively put together, but eventually it's a lot of chairs followed by a lot of glass and it gets a bit overwhelming. In the basement there is a lot of industrial design. Museum personnel in the rooms doesn't speak english, they're guards who serve to tell people off rather than provide assistance. I DISLIKED that there were no descriptions of items in several rooms, as you instead have to grab a cheaply together pamphlet that may not even be in the room. Overall, good and varied inventory, not a great consideration of visitors' experiences.

It was very nice and pleasant. Interesting show. Everything is well organised, as always. It wasn't so crowded, so it was really a pleasure.

MAK is an excellent Museum of Applied Arts. They do an excellent job getting guest curators and artists to engage with the collection in inventive and dynamic ways to highlight various items & how they relate to each other. This makes the collection come alive, and it becomes much more interesting to experience, compared to the standard, more static, approach I see in many museums. One highlight was the stunning 1907 gesso panels, Seven Princesses by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. You need to see it in person to appreciate its subtle beauty and impressive scope. Apparently, the Seven Princesses only survived WW1 because a curator hid the piece to keep it safe. The curator brought it down to the museum's basement, put the panels into three crates along the wall, then built a brick wall in front of them, which was painted to match the existing walls. They stayed hidden like this until they were discovered in 1990. Another highlight was an installation from Superflux called Invocation for Hope, which featured hundreds of dead trees burned from a forest fire that were installed around some live plants & moss around a 'pool'. When I visited, they also had a lot of environment & sustainability related projects on display -- there were some really interesting projects there. The building itself also has lovely architectural features.

I happened to go to MAK on free night which is Tuesday from 6 PM to 10 PM so I had a really good time. Does it compare to the Victoria & Albert in London, NO.... but then again what does. Also this museum building has a lot of space, a lot of space that they don't really utilize very well. There could be a whole lot more on display. But anyway my favorite part was the permanent collection which is on the top floor, lots of decorative items from around 1890 into 1940's.

Wonderful museum for decorative arts. especially good for Weiner Werkstatte items. Excellent temporary exhibit featuring virtual reality glasses for 'entering' Gustav Klimt paintings!

Such an interesting, thoughtful set of exhibits. Really loved the "handmade" quality of many of the exhibits (way to walk your talk, MAK) and the "guest curation" by so many modern artists and writers. Highly recommended for visitors who are interested in applied arts. One sour note: MAK needs a re-usable shopping bag that is all MAK, instead of the ones you sell now. I would LOVE to advertise you in all my schlepping.

Worth seeking out as the exhibits cover so many aspects of design - clothing, architecture, sustainability, tech, food/eating, play ... totally kid-friendly and with a nice restaurant attached. I would totally go again when back in Vienna