Robert La Roche. Personal View

About

The brand's ad campaigns are contemporary documents of the creative scene in Vienna from the 1970s to the 1990s, which also made waves internationally. Famous wearers of La Roche eyewear include Hollywood stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meryl Streep as well as artists such as Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol.

The occasion for this retrospective is the donation of an extensive selection of frames from La Roche's time as an active designer until the sale of the brand in 1999 to the MAK. Some 1 200 models–one-off pieces and mass-produced products–were created during this time.
The anecdotally structured exhibition offers insights into his design work and the dsign of his campagins, supplemented with sketches, photographs, videos, advertisements, and artifacts from the designer's archive. La Roche follows in the tradition of renowned eyewear designers such as Udo Proksch (aka Serge Kirchhofer), Cari Zalloni (CAZAL), and Dora Demmel for Silhouette as well as the eyewear manufacturer and inventor of Optyl Wilhelm Anger (Viennaline, CARRERA, Christian Dior, Porsche Design, etc.), who have established Austria's international reputation for outstanding eyewear design since the mid-20th century. The name Robert La Roche has become a cult brand and attained a global reputation. Today vintage originals of his classic eyewear once again enjoy enormous popularity.

Curator: Thomas Geisler, Curator, MAK Design Collection