Carl Auböck II was born in 1900 and is one of the most extraordinary personalities of Austrian modernism. After working as an apprentice bronze worker and engraver for the family business in the early 1900’s, he went on to be a student of Johannes Itten, a Swiss expressionist painter and designer, at the Bauhaus in Weimar. Once graduated he took over his father’s workshop and in the early 40’s developed a very particular style which many consider modernist, in fact he became the face of Austrian modernism. The ideas he dreamt up derived from abstraction, and the knowledge and skills within his small family workshop became the birth place for ideas from the Bauhaus but now translated in to three-dimensional brass objects. Carl Auböck III took over in 1957 and started making objects in new materials, including horn and wood, expanding the collection and making a platform for experimentation. His son Carl Auböck IV has been instrumental in preserving the quality and craftsmanship in the workshop which today remains among the last of its kind. With the help of photographer Paul Bauer we’ve been able to document and capture inside the the famous workshop owned by the Auböck family, hopefully showcasing some of the skills in which it takes to produce these iconic sculptural and functional forms, such as the Paperweight Foot the Vase Aorta. You can check out our full range of Carl Auböck work in the shop.