Category: art

  • Double pleasure at the Albertina Museum

    Double pleasure at the Albertina Museum

    Last week I had a chance to join Instagramers Austria again for a tour of the Albertina Museum´s latest retrospective exhibitions of two great Austrian artists:  Alfred Seiland and Florentina Pakosta. Alfred Seiland Alfred Seiland is a photographer, but really I would call him a camera artist.  Seiland was born in Austria in 1952 and…

  • Up!  Art at vertiginous heights

    Up! Art at vertiginous heights

    Up above the clouds so high, like a diamond in the sky… — Well, admittedly the art installation and view tower of HÖHENRAUSCH – Das andere Ufer in Linz is not quite that far up, but high enough to give you impressive all-round views over Linz and a chance at refreshment on a hot day…

  • Giant hat pins and other fantasy objects: Gironcoli

    Giant hat pins and other fantasy objects: Gironcoli

    The other day I was finally able to visit the exhibition Shy at Work, an extensive selection of works by Bruno Gironcoli at the MUMOK.   A couple of these objects are on display in the public space in front of the MUMOK – you can´t have missed them if you have passed through the Museumsquartier…

  • Abstracting nature – variations on a photographic theme

    Abstracting nature – variations on a photographic theme

    Something a little different today.  Last Saturday, in glaring sunshine, I participated in a thematic photo walk along the Donaukanal near Kunsthaus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser.  From time to time the museum offers photo walks based on themes in their current exhibitions.  “Some Plant Volatiles” by Hamburg-based photographer Jochen Lempert provided the foundation for Saturday´s…

  • Vienna in gold – A Jane´s walk

    Vienna in gold – A Jane´s walk

    Who´s Jane? I´ve been asked this.  So here is a bit of background on the Jane´s Walk Vienna 2018 festival.  These walks are named for Jane Jacobs, who was an American-Canadian journalist, writer, and activist who had great influence on American urban studies, sociology, and how people thought about urban development in the 1950s and…

  • Observing collectors of the exotic

    Observing collectors of the exotic

    Missionaries – mercenaries – ethnographers – tourists… One might say that collecting things is a basic human urge.  Some people collect clocks,  antique books, vintage clothing, rubber ducks, bottle tops, even umbrella sleeves (!) – you name it, somebody will surely be collecting it.   (I personally admit to an out-of-control collection of (artificial) birds…

  • Art in the aftermath of war – a special angle on two current exhibitions at the Belvedere

    Art in the aftermath of war – a special angle on two current exhibitions at the Belvedere

    Last Friday I finally had the chance to attend an expert tour at the Belvedere again.  The Belvedere has an outstanding programme of guided tours by curators and historians, and I try to go as often as I can (which, given my schedule lately, is less often than I would like). The excellent art history…

  • Monstrous machines and biting dogs – Keith Haring´s Alphabet at the Albertina

    Monstrous machines and biting dogs – Keith Haring´s Alphabet at the Albertina

    Keith Haring is perhaps best known for his funky cartoons of happy babies with halos and line drawings of Mickey Mouse look-alikes.  At first glance his use of garish colours and popping black silhouettes gives the impression of a happy cartoon world.  What you can buy on buttons and T-shirts are often his happier motifs.  …

  • Going wild at the Leopold Museum

    Going wild at the Leopold Museum

    Wow!  The Heidi Horten Collection exhibition at the Leopold Museum is aptly named.  It really is superb.   Last week  @igersaustria.at organized a special photo tour of the exhibit.  What an impressive private collection!   One really has to be grateful to Heidi Goëss-Horten for making such masterpieces available for public viewing for the first time.…

  • A preview of Vienna´s long night of research – Part 1: the MAK

    A preview of Vienna´s long night of research – Part 1: the MAK

    On 13 April 2018 you have an opportunity to visit many of Vienna´s cultural and research institutions for free.  It´s Lange Nacht der Forschung (Long Night of Research) again!  LNF18 is the only nationwide science communication event that makes the services of domestic institutions accessible to the general public – from school projects to cutting-edge…