Vienna is a wonderful city for art.  From classical to modern, it has both in abundance.  On several trips to Austria’s capital city, I’ve had the chance to take in some of each.  In early April, I spent nearly all day in the Kunsthistoriches, Vienna’s collection of pre-modern art.  In early May, I spent maybe too much some time at the MUMOK, one of Vienna’s modern art museums, and then more time at the Belvedere, Prince Eugene of Savoy’s  ‘country’ palace and one of Vienna’s first public art museums.  Some art I had hoped to see was either ‘on loan’ to another museum (good for them, bad for me!) or simply rotated out, but there were plenty of redeeming works to make up for it!

The Kunst has an extensive Reubens collection, a smattering of some from one of my all-time favorites, Caravaggio (the wizard of ‘lighting’ in oil paintings), and a whole roomful of huge assembly of Breugel, to say nothing of a few by Rembrant, Bosch, Dürer, Raphael, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine coming ‘round the corner, expecting but not finding Gone were most of the Arcimboldo works of ‘portrait vegetable art’ – but how could I complain? They were on loan to Washington, D.C. and Italy!

 

 

Equally enjoyable was watching modern artists try their hand at reproducing the masters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The MUMOK (MUseum MOderner Kunst) is the largest Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Central Europe with an extensive Collection of international Art from the 20th Century and the Present.  Unfortunately for me, I didn’t thoroughly check the website before going or I would have learned that much of the collection of was rotated out.

The minimalist abstract art exhibit wasn’t all that bad – it was good for its genre, but there was so little of it.  (heh heh)

 

 

However, I started on the bottom floor with “Actionism” and some VERY disturbing photos/videos of self-and other-mutilation.  Perhaps that is the point – to shock.   I found it just plain creepy. And  I didn’t see anyone trying to reproduce this stuff!

 

John Cage’s music action was simply great, however!  See it here.  My parents used to watch I’ve Got A Secret.  It was funny to hear it dubbed in German! (no dubbing needed for the actual music however!)

 

But there was nary an Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns and Roy Liechtenstein to be seen anywhere. Boo!

In between the extremely noisy exuberant students who were having a lesson with docents,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found these two gems!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely support that art museums encourage love and knowledge of art at an early age and keep right on doing that up through older age.  And I am not the ‘don’t touch the books and don’t make noise librarian-type’, but the activity did make it a wee bit hard to concentrate or even hear the audio guide!  Sometimes the art becomes the people IN the museum, which is maybe what actionism is all about!  The fact that I am still thinking about all that modern art is a testament to its gift to stimulate pondering and discussion!

 

The Belvedere I visited after our trip (on non-trip) to the American Embassy (whoops – we needed to visit the consulate instead – that’s in another part of town!).    Side note:  A sad sign of the times, apparently – the American Embassy is cordoned off from the rest of the world, where as the French embassy is on a beautiful street, merely surrounded by a simple, elegant wrought iron fence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No photos were allowed inside the Belvedere, but there I found a happy marriage of the old and the new(er) in this museum devoted mostly to works by artists of the central European region.  The medieval art – the carved altarpieces, and sculptures were stunning.  Works by late 19th and early 20th century artists Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka both delighted and probed.

All photos courtesy of the Belvedere Museum website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kiss is like an icon, both figuratively and literally, with so much gold overlay!  The Znaim altarpiece is the biggest one I have ever seen!  It must have been 15 feet high!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The extensive outside grounds had lots of potential but the gardens were still ‘in preparation.’  It was a cold and blustery day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next time I will post about some of the churches we’ve seen while in Vienna.

Thanks as always, for reading!