Karl Hagenauer - vendere e comprare opere
1898, Vienna (Austria) - 1956, Vienna (Austria)
Karl Hagenauer was an Austrian architect, designer and craftsman of the Viennese Art Deco movement. Hagenauer managed the company ‘Werkstätte Hagenauer’ from 1928-1956. As a designer there, Hagenauer created decorative objects and sculptures both with and without concrete functionality - in particular, brass figures, which are still extremely popular today, particularly in Europe and North America.
Hagenauer was born in 1898 as the eldest son of craftsman, Carl Hagenauer. Following his architectural training under Josef Hoffmann and Karl Strnad at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (which was interrupted by two years of military service), he began worked as a designer at his father’s company, the ‘Werkstätte Hagenauer’, from 1919. His designs were largely influenced by the style of the Vienna Workshops. In 1982, following the death of his father, he began managing the family company, which also employed his siblings Franz and Grete. Hagenauer effectively managed the ‘Werkstätte Hagenauer’ despite precarious economic conditions, eventually even expanding the business to include a woodworking shop and a sales office on the famous Viennese Opernring.
Hagenauer received many awards, including gold medals at both at the 1927 World’s Fair in Philadelphia and the 1957 Triennale in Milan.
As he was able to win over Rena Rosenthal and John Wannamaker as clients, who had great influence on New Yorker’s fashion of the time, namely as established merchants, Hagenauer‘s designs soon transformed into top sellers throughout the USA.
During the Second World War, the company was forced to manufacture brass parts for the arms industry to ensure its survival. Due to the shortage of metal during the post-war years, Hagenauer shifted parts of the production, among others, to consumer goods, such as crockery and wooden furniture. The Werkstätte also began manufacturing brass objects in black for the first time. The technique was widely copied following Hagenauer's presentation of the technique at the Viennese Arts and Crafts Exhibition.
Hagenauer died of a heart attack in Vienna in 1956. He was 57.