International Art News

Max Ernst – Au dessus des nuages marche la minuit, 1920 – Photographische Vergrößerung einer Collage – © VBK, Wien 2012 / Kunsthaus Zürich

From 23 January 2013 to 5 May 2013 – Albertina
First retrospective in Austria – of Max Ernst, the great pictorial inventor. Presenting a selection of 150 paintings, collages, and sculptures, as well as relevant examples of illustrated books and documents, the exhibition will assemble works related to all of the artist’s periods, discoveries, and techniques, thereby introducing his life and œuvre within a both biographic and historical context.

Max Ernst – la puberté proche… (les pléiades), 1921 – Collage, Gouache und Öl auf Papier, auf Karton aufgezogen -
© VBK, Wien 2012 / Privatsammlung

Together with Matisse, Picasso, Beckmann, Kandinsky, and Warhol, Max Ernst no doubt numbers among the leading figures of 20th-century art history. An early protagonist of Dadaism, a pioneer of Surrealism, and the inventor of such sophisticated techniques as collage, frottage, grattage, decalcomania, and oscillation, he withdraws his work from catchy definition. His inventiveness when it comes to handling pictorial and inspirational techniques, the breaks between his countless work phases, and his switching back and forth between themes cause irritation. Yet what remains a constant is his consistence in terms of contradiction.

Albertina

Albrecht Dürer - Innsbruck von Norden, um 1496 - Aquarell, Spuren von Deckfarben, mit Deckweiß gehöht - Albertina, Wien

Until the 6 of January 2013 – Albertina
Many of the most important works created for the propaganda and in memory of Maximilian I are preserved in the Albertina. These include works of Albrecht Dürer, but also the extraordinary Triumphal Procession of Albrecht Altdorfer and his workshop, which will form the core of the exhibit. Of the original 109 large-sized parchment sheets with flamboyantly colourful representations of riders, magnificent chariots and landsknechts, sheets 49 to 109 are preseved in the Albertina and, compiled as a frieze, amount to a length of more than 54 metres. In addition to this unique work, other important imperial commissions are presented, such as the monumental woodcut  Arch of Honor and the book projects Theuerdank, Weisskunig and Freydal, which are very closely intertwined with one another in terms of form and ideas. Emperor Maximilian I has been called the “Last Knight” since the 19 th century, although he stood at the beginning of a Europe-wide renaissance of chivalry represented in the form of magnificent tournaments and armaments.

Niklas Reiser - Maria von Burgund, um 1500 - Öl auf Holz - Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, Gemäldegalerie

In addition to many other themes, the exhibition presents this illustrious aspect of the art from the time of Maximilian with numerous examples from the internal collection, complemented by important loans from international museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) Vienna.

Albertina

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Frauenbildnis mit Hut, 1911-1912 - Wachskreiden auf Papier - Albertina, Wien - Dauerleihgabe der Sammlung Werner

From June 1, 2012 to August 26, 2012 – Albertina
Presented in this exhibition is the exceptional collection of a woman whose career following the Second World War started as a simple secretary and led to becoming the right hand woman of the renowned art dealer Wilhelm Grosshennig in Dusseldorf, and a passionate art collector after 1960.

Erich Heckel - Frau vor Bäumen, 1925 - Schwarze Kreide und Aquarell - Albertina, Wien - Dauerleihgabe der Sammlung Werner

The selection includes around 90 works with a focus on German Expressionism. In addition to outstanding work groups from Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde, works from a considerable ensemble of German art from the 19th century and Western European greats like Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani will also be shown.

Emil Nolde - Zwei Dampfer, um 1915 - Aquarell auf Japanpapier - Albertina, Wien - Dauerleihgabe der Sammlung Werner

Albertina

Rona Yefman, Girl on Her Elephant (Detail), 2002 © Rona Yefman, Courtesy Rona Yefman und/and Sommer Contemporary Art, Tel-Aviv

From May 04th to September 02nd, 2012 – Kunsthalle Wien
Clear the ring for the world of acrobats, clowns, and exotic animals! Presenting a number of contemporary works of art, the exhibition The Circus as a Parallel Universe offers an introduction into the universe of the circus and highlights a wondrous place full of knowledge of the world, surprises and sensations, a place of poetry, but also of excitement, confusion, and unease.
The circus as a parallel world has become a projection surface in film and literature, but also in the fine arts. fascinated with the circus, its forms, and its practice, Peter Blake has created his own personal company of acrobats and fabulous circus creatures, for example. Federico Fellini has made the circus the subject of numerous films, and Charlie Chaplin’s figure of the tramp transcends the norms of social life. Ulrike Ottinger’s works confront us with the circus as a metaphor of an utopian perspective in which its sphere features as the gentle twin of revolution. Besides animals and acrobats, it is primarily the figure of the clown whose complexity oscillating between good and bad, funny and sad has always inspired the arts. Reaching far beyond the actual fringes of the circus’s ring, the exhibition assembles international artistic positions that thematize the world of the circus outside the big top and draw on its figures, forms, and metaphors.

Daniel Firman, Nasutamanus, 2012 Courtesy Galerie Perrotin, Paris © Daniel Firman, Foto/Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli

Participating Artists:
Diane Arbus, Matthew Barney, Julien Bismuth, Rhona Bitner, Peter Blake, Olaf Breuning, Bernhard Buhmann, Alexander Calder/Carlos Vilardebo, Charlie Chaplin, Clifton Childree, Charles & Ray Eames, Federico Fellini, Daniel Firman, Thilo Frank, Jeppe Hein, Roni Horn, Anna Jermolaewa, Anna Kolodziejska, Tomasz Kowalski, Patricia Leite, Zilla Leutenegger, Ulrike Lienbacher, Jonathan Monk, Bruce Nauman, Ulrike Ottinger, Marion Peck, Ugo Rondinone, Julian Rosefeldt, Joe Scanlan, Elisabeth Schmirl, Deborah Sengl, Cindy Sherman, Simmons & Burke, Kristian Sverdrup, Javier Téllez, Joe Wagner, Martin Walde, William Wegman, Nives Widauer, Erwin Wurm, Rona Yefman

Kunsthalle Wien Museum

Angela de La Cruz, FLOOD, 2012

From April 26th to June 2th, 2012 – Galerie Krinzinger
Spanish-born de la Cruz, 45, lives and works in London. Her work is situated between painting, sculpture and installation. Her paintings are often crudely broken, ripped or folded in on themselves, wedged into corners and doorways or presented as masses on the gallery floor.
The canvases are brutally misshapen and dilapidated forms but are deftly and luxuriously painted.
After breaking the stretchers of her canvases as a student at Slade art school, de la Cruz became preoccupied with ‘freeing painting from the boundaries of its support’. Her works often allude to or stand in for the human form.

Gallery Hours

Gustav Klimt - Bildnis einer Dame mit Cape und Hut im Dreiviertelprofil, 1897-98 - Schwarze und rote Kreide - © Albertina, Wien

From March 14, 2012 toJune 10,  2012 – The Albertina
The great popularity of the illustrator Gustav Klimt is primarily based on the intoxicating sensuality of his female studies from the nude. The exhibition Gustav Klimt – The Drawings memorably visualises just how complex his draughtsmanship really is. The Albertina is showing a large part of its famous Klimt holdings, which consist of 170 sheets. The show is supplemented by outstanding loans from Austrian and international collections. The exhibition features a rich spectrum of figure studies, monumental work drawings and pictorial allegories. Klimt created fascinating effects with economical technical means: with chalk, pencil or coloured pencils, occasionally with a pen or watercolours and gold paint. Several series of figure studies are found in the Albertina that were created by Klimt in connection with important allegorical paintings or portraits. In these sheets he got to the essence of a certain pose, movement or frame of mind step by step. Each sheet has an autonomous significance.

Gustav Klimt - Studie eines Frauenkopfes im Dreiviertelprofil für die "Unkeuschheit" im "Beethovenfries", 1901-1902 - Albertina, Wien

Particularly these rarely shown series convey deep insight into the work methods and the mental and emotional universe of an artist who practically never spoke about his art.

Museum Hours