BOOK LAUNCH

UDOTOPIA. UDO PROKSCH

BY LUISA JEAN COOPER

MONDAY, 02.12.2019, 7 PM

In conversation: Erika Pluhar, former wife of Udo Proksch, Robert Dornhelm, director of the movie Out of Control, and Peter Pilz, chair of the parliamentary investigation committee on the Lucona affair in 1988/89

Display of original documents from the Udo Proksch Archive

Udo Proksch was a man of many faces: a swineherd, an artist, a man about town, an exceptional networker, a “fisher of men”, a convicted murderer, and in the grey and dull Vienna of the 1960s and 70s he was the shining star of the high society. 30 years after his arrest Udotopia presents the first comprehensive survey of his oeuvre as a designer.

The focus of the new luxurious volume – hardcover 26.5 x 36 cm, 456 pages, title imprint, colour gilding, kept in an equally luxurious box – is Proksch the restless designer. Way ahead of his time in his creative vision and his understanding of marketing and PR, Proksch brought fame to the international eyewear brands Viennaline and Carrera, before launching his eponymous brand under the alias name Serge Kirchhofer, creating his most elaborate collection.

For her research Australian author Luisa Jean Cooper has deeply immersed herself into the archive, which was acquired by WestLicht chairman Peter Coeln in 2005. A selection of 1000 eyeglass frames, 6000 drawings, 100 artworks from the archive is now revealed to the public in this lavish publication and allows for a study of the inner workings of Proksch’s creative mind. His eyewear designs are being reissued by Brando Eyewear and will also be presented at the book launch.

“Udo Proksch was anything but predictable. He had ideas that were ground-breaking in concept and potential, but between the perfectibility of his creations and the darkness of his lust for power, he came unstuck. In a country like Austria, the long history of which is studded with brilliant, unconventional men and women in the field of art and culture, it could be said that Udo, polarised as he was, was a rarity. However, at the end of it, he was consigned to history more as a criminal, and much less as a creative genius. Here we celebrate Udo Proksch—creative genius”, says Luisa Jean Cooper, author of the book.

“With this book we open up a window to our recent past, a window which until now had been closed”, says WestLicht chairman Peter Coeln. “In our politically eventful times, taking a look at the life and work of Udo Proksch is by all means important, because it shows us what people are capable of—for better or for worse.”

UDOTOPIA
By Luisa Jean Cooper

Preface by Peter Coeln, 456 pages, 26.5 x 36 cm, hardcover in a box

Toran Press 2019