From rococo to neoclassicism
Encouraged by the Church, the Baroque movement arrived late in Vienna, at the beginning of the 18th century. Today, the city abounds with Baroque sculptures adorning facades and squares, such as the Donner-Brunnen fountain in the Neue Markt, erected around 1739 by Georg Raphael. During this century, Austrian painting distinguished itself from the German school. The rococo painter Daniel Gran (1694-1757) perfectly represented the academic trend then underway in Vienna. Characterized by the clarity of his vast compositions, he painted the ceiling of the Schwarzenberg Palace.
The neoclassical period is exemplified by the Viennese artist Friedrich-Heinrich Füger (1751-1818), trained by a renowned German artist. It was in the art of miniature and portraiture that his talent came to the fore. Portraiture flourished in Vienna in the first half of the 18th century, thanks to commissions from the aristocracy. The masters of the genre were Jean-Baptiste Lampi father and son, who possessed a personal style unlike most painters of the period, who were content to execute works "à la manière de". The third most popular genre of the century was landscape painting, of which Joseph-Anton Koch (1768-1839) was the most inspired artist. His magnificent panoramas, inspired by his native Tyrol and mythological figures, are painted with impressive meticulousness.
Pictorial ruptures
After the Nazarenes, who renewed religious art by studying the Italian and German masters, it wasn't until the end of the 19th century that Viennese painting experienced a golden age, thanks to the Secession movement. A group of artists rose to international prominence with the aim of breaking away from bourgeois classicism. However, a few isolated careers foreshadowed a turning point in artistic aspirations. Viennese painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865) always steered clear of academic or romantic trends, imposing his own individual style based on scrupulous observation of nature. As a result, he remains one of Austria's greatest painters. A pupil of Lampi at the Vienna Academy, he traveled to Rome and Paris and studied Dutch painters. In 1857, he denounced the evils of academic teaching and thought of founding a society of free artists, which the Secession would do ten years later.
The Vienna Secession
At the end of the 19th century, a group of artists founded a movement that made a complete break with the Academy. At its head were Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, both protégés of Gustav Klimt. A new era of total art began. Conventional representations were shattered. The movement, which died out in 1907, left a legacy of remarkable works, some of which can be seen at the Belvedere Palace: Moser's Self-Portrait, Egon Schiele's Der Rainerbub and Klimt's The Kiss and Judith I.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), from a modest family, entered the School of Applied Arts at the age of 14. In 1883, he opened a decorating studio with his brother, and gradually broke away from academicism under the influence of his friends Khnof, Arnold Böcklin and Auguste Rodin. Thanks to the success of his frescoes at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, he received a ministerial commission to decorate the three faculties of theUniversity of Vienna. His allegorical paintings Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were completed in 1908, but caused a scandal. A petition called for them to be removed, after which Medicine was destroyed in 1945. In 1897, he founded the Vienna Secession with the support of forty artists.
The Beethoven Frieze was presented for the first time by Gustav Klimt in 1902, at the fourteenth Secession exhibition. In the Secession Palace, this 34-meter-long mural depicts the Ninth Symphony, and is approved by Gustav Mahler himself and praised by Rodin.
Viennese Expressionism
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980), trained in Vienna, settled in Berlin, where he frequented the avant-garde circles gathered around Der Sturm magazine. After seeing a Kokoschka exhibition in 1911, Archduke Franz Ferdinand declared, "This man deserves to have all his bones broken." At the age of 22, Kokoschka published his first novel, Les Garçons rêveurs, followed by several poems and dramas. In 1912, he had an unhappy affair with Alma Mahler. He painted her in numerous pictures. A series of grimacing, distorted portraits from this period reveals the artist's desire to express the hidden psychology of his models. Seriously wounded in the First World War, he devoted himself from 1919 to 1924 to teaching painting in Dresden. There, he took sides with the workers' movements, while he polemicized in the press with John Heartfield and George Grosz, whom he considered too far to the left. In England, where he took refuge during the Second World War, he painted works against the Anschluss and fascism. Recognized as one of the most important Expressionist painters, in 1953 he founded a painting school in Salzburg, called the School of the Gaze. Modest, unlike Schiele, he declares of his painting: "I am an eternal beginner". Mirages du passé is published in Gallimard's "L'Imaginaire" collection.
Admired during his lifetime, the Expressionist painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), whose career was as brief as it was dazzling, never ceased to disturb. It's hardly surprising, then, that his nude, grimacing women find it hard to appeal to a broad public. Yet Schiele's output is not limited to these distressing nudes. He also explored the techniques of portraiture, landscape and symbolism. His father went mad and died in 1905, leaving his family destitute. Despite the opposition of his guardian and uncle, his mother managed to enter Schiele in the 1906 competition at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was admitted as a guest for a year, while a fellow countryman, a certain Adolf Hitler, was expelled for "bad composition drawing". At the age of 17, his meeting with Klimt marked the beginning of a mutual friendship and admiration. Klimt invited the young Egon to the 1909 Kunstschau Exhibition. At the age of 19, after three arduous years of academic apprenticeship, the discipline of which he endured with great difficulty, Schiele was able to follow his vocation. He managed to survive thanks to the support of an influential art critic, Artur Roessler, who convinced collectors to buy his paintings. Moving to the countryside, he was evicted from two villages because of his unconventional lifestyle. He was even arrested in 1912 for moral outrage and statutory rape. He spent just twenty-four days in prison, however, and was not the martyr the legend portrays him to be. On his release, Schiele the rebel aspired to a bourgeois life, but without accepting its conventions or constraints. He settled in Vienna and befriended a girl from a good family, whom he married in 1915. Having managed to avoid the fighting in the Great War, he was assigned to a desk job in a prison camp, then to the Royal and Imperial Army Museum. His marriage gives him a more serene inspiration and seems to free him from his inner demons. When his friend Klimt died in 1918, Schiele became the darling of the Viennese public, and his exhibition at the Secession was a success. The year 1918 was one of artistic recognition, but the euphoria did not last. His wife died of Spanish flu. He outlived her by three days.
In the aftermath of Viennese shareholding
Founded on the vestiges of a stiflingly conservative policy imposed by the bourgeoisie and then the Nazi regime, Viennese Actionism was as brief as it was radical. Between 1960 and 1971, the rebel movement revived the provocative spirit of Austrian Expressionism, embodied by Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. Represented by Günter Brus, Abino Byrolle, Otto Muehl, Hermann Nitsch and Rudolf Schwarzkogler, it developed performance art in the tradition of Fluxus. Although Actionism only occupied a short period in the careers of these artists, it was nonetheless decisive in the evolution of the international avant-garde. The Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK) in the MuseumsQuartier, which focuses on art of the 20thand 21st centuries, displays these trends alongside works by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Marcel Duchamp and Gerhard Richter. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, installations, photos and videos. Photography is also richly represented at theAlbertina, with worksby Helmut Newton and Viennese photographer Lisette Model (1901-1983), who shot portraits of Franck Sinatra, Georges Simenon and Louis Armstrong. Her work is also part of the MOMA collection.
Surprising Vienna
Live art in Vienna can be found in numerous dedicated venues, but also on the streets. For the majestic capital knows how to combine urban art and grandiose architecture like no other. Cycling through the streets will take you from a fresco to a center of contemporary art. For starters, cycle along the 17 km long Danube Canal, its inner arm lined with painted walls, lined up like a monumental canvas. On the quayside, frescoes alternate with food stalls, trendy bars and taverns. The Spittelau Subway station, in the northern part of the city, is itself a piece of urban art with its share of nuggets. In Mariahilf, the ultra-trendy 6tharrondissement , a number of murals can be found between independent galleries and designer boutiques. Don't miss the street art passage in the heart of the Museumsquartier, the crossroads of all cultures. It's one of six "passages" serving as open-air exhibition spaces. Inside, you'll recognize the Invader signature. For fans of creative performances, the Calle Libre festival lets art express itself in the streets of Vienna every August. Also in MuseumsQuarier, the Kunsthalle Wien presents contemporary art at the highest level, and strives to reflect its diversity through innovative scenographic concepts.
Living art is also on show at the Hundertwasser Museum, part of Kunst Haus Wien. Its basement houses the Galerie, a space dedicated to young international photography. If you're looking for local art, head for the Belvedere 21 museum, which champions contemporary Austrian creation: performances, lectures, readings and concerts complete the panorama of Vienna's devilishly dynamic cultural scene. And now, treat yourself to a well-deserved break at Lucy Bar!
