Category: art
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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. …
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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.…
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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…