Heavy metal fashion

Imagine being weighed down by a suit made of iron or steel. Actually, as I was told during a tour of the current exhibition at Vienna´s Kunsthistorisches Museum, KHM, men wearing these metal carapaces were able to walk, run and jump in it. That must have taken some muscle power, in addition to agility, butContinue reading “Heavy metal fashion”

Majolica Magic

Yesterday was International Museum Day, so I am one day late with a museum post, but actually, every day is museum day, right? On Monday the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna had a very special evening: Notte della Maiolica Italiana – Night of Italian Majolica. Why Italian? Because for one, the ItalianContinue reading “Majolica Magic”

Renaissance Women at the KHM

At the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien you can currently still visit a very beautiful exhibition of luminous portraits of women dating back to the Renaissance, with works from several collections around the world. Titian´s Vision of Women is on only until 30 January 2022. I was lucky enough to be invited to see it before itContinue reading “Renaissance Women at the KHM”

Stones that speak

On Friday I showed you bits of my neighbourhood, which was created during the days of working class housing- and food shortages that followed World War I and the breakup of the Habsburg Empire.  But of course this problem extended to all of Vienna, and the cooperative garden settlements that were built in the 1920sContinue reading “Stones that speak”

Close to home

Like many of us, the COVID-19 spread prevention measures for me have meant a lot of time spent at home, where I can fortunately continue to work (in home office), enjoy culture (via innumerable streams from the wonderful world of cultural institutions), exercise (with regular live streams of Pilates, yoga and Zumba classes), and takeContinue reading “Close to home”

All clear for contemporary art

I had wanted to wait for the opening of Albertina Modern and introduce two fantastic modern art institutions in one go. Because under one beautiful roof – at the historic and just reopened Künstlerhaus Wien – we now have now have two galleries. The original owner, the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung (Vienna Association of Fine Artists), isContinue reading “All clear for contemporary art”

Individualistic, sensitive, powerful – contemporary drawings at the Albertina

Drawing is more subtle than painting.  It does not tend to jump out at you quite so much.  It asks you to take your time, to look at detail, to admire fine lines.  The Albertina Museum has put together a fine exhibition of contemporary drawings from the Guerlain Collection from the Centre Pompidou Paris.  AContinue reading “Individualistic, sensitive, powerful – contemporary drawings at the Albertina”

A noisy orchestra of colours: Bosch & Banisadr

Ali Banisadr speaks of the fantastic colourful figures that populate his canvases as if they were independent beings, born into his creative world out of a chaotic cacophony of sound and colour that slowly comes together as a symphony.  It is not often that I get to meet an important contemporary artist, and I feelContinue reading “A noisy orchestra of colours: Bosch & Banisadr”

Individual nature – Kiki Smith

Before it´s too late (just one more week), I absolutely had to go see the exhibition of Kiki Smith´s large size canvases and other works at the Lower Belvedere museum.  The Belvedere is showing about sixty works of this American artist´s multi-facetted oevre in the exhibition Processions , including sculptures, large tapestries, and objects andContinue reading “Individual nature – Kiki Smith”

An art salon in a princely collection

In what I would call an eye-popping exhibition space with walls in blazing red, blue and green (I love it!), the Albertina Museum is showing masterpieces from the Princely Collections of the House of Liechtenstein in an exhibition titled “From Rubens to Makart“.  The Liechtenstein collections contain major works of European art spanning five centuriesContinue reading “An art salon in a princely collection”