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English summaries November 3 - 16
KM – Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien
Ordinary freaks – The principle of coolness in Pop, theatre and museums
28. 09. 2014 – 20. 11. 2014
By Nora Theiss
For young people, the 1980s were dominated by the feeling of “everything goes”. Young girls were prepared to conquer the world and Pop culture offered them powerful role models, such as Cindy Lauper, Madonna, Nena or Nina Hagen. They were allowed to be freaky, gothic or punky – regardless of the order. Even visual arts were inspired by “everything goes”, and, at that time, artists such as Martin Kippenberger or Albert Öhlen explored the playground of the Forum Stadtpark in Graz. Being cheeky and snotty was fashionable and led to success.
Now, 30 years later, when the principle of coolness at the interface of visual arts, Pop culture in general, theatre and music is being questioned, many of us might have a flashback. And many will, and should, ask themselves what the topicality of this exhibition is. Some of the works shown, definitely come across as snotty and cheeky, e.g. works by Kim Gordon or Martin Martin Creed. In any case, the photo series “Thirteen Colour Punk Photos” by Bruce Connor is the exhibition’s highlight.
This exhibition is absolutely perfect for those who choose a melancholic approach to the days of Pop and art. It is easy to feel young and wild again, and to devote oneself to the effervescent opportunities life offers.
KM– Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien
8010 Graz, Burgring 2
Tel: +43 316 740 084
email: hd@km-k.at
www.km-k.at
Opening hours: Tue – Sun: 11 – 18 hours, Thu: 11-20 hours
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Velázquez
28.10.2014 – 15.02.2014
By Matthias Kampmann
There are moments in which time does not seem to move forward. A suffused present that engulfs all sounds, allows no distractions. Moments in which one self disappears because the counterpart is so strongly present. Juan de Calabazas was one of the court jesters in Baroque, absolutist Madrid. His likeness generated exactly this feeling. Diego Velázquez perpetuated it in magnificent uniqueness. It's a central painting in this exceptional exhibition in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, whose combinatorics will provide a clever example of what curators can achieve for a long time to come. In addition, besides the Madrid Prado, there's hardly a house worldwide in a position to lay this on with such a magnificent stock of this kind. In all, King Philipp IV had sent 14 works of this master to Vienna. Twelve of these are still there today.
There had already in advance been a discussion of an exhibition of the century. Even if the Prado had not sent the main work, «Las Meninas», of Philipp IV's court painter (born 1599) to Vienna, works such as the Court Jester from 1638, but also early paintings such as the «Adoration of the Kings» (1619), the greatest work of the then 20-year-old, mirror the inordinate quality of the show. And also, naturally, «Prince Balthasar Carlos on Horseback» (1635), to plant a milestone in the reception of the Spanish painter. The Prado sent seven works quasi in return for the Viennese loan to the Madrid exhibition about the painter and Philipp IV's family last year. Above and beyond this, the Florence Uffizi as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the State Art Collection Dresden, the Berlin Art Gallery or Apsley House London, which sent, amongst others, the «Waterseller of Seville» (1622), have all enriched the display of works with a total of 46 paintings. Sabine Haag, General Director of the house, spoke of a high point in the exhibition history of the museum.
Diego Velázquez was born into an intellectual family in Spain's (then) richest and most important commercial city, Seville. That he was able to become a pupil of the rather conservative painter, Francisco Pacheco (1564-1644) is therefore not a matter of course, as painting in Spain at that time was still counted amongst the handicraft occupations, as opposed to the rest of Europe where artists had been on a par with poets for quite some time. But his master was well connected and must have recognized who he had in front of him as a pupil. In 1618, he even entrusted his daughter as a wife to Velazquez.
The show describes the range of Caravaggio's first influence to the fascination of Titian's late works and the absolutely unique incorporation and processing of these influences by Velázquez.
Masterpieces without end. For example, the «Rokeby Venus» from London, the only known female nude portrait by Velázquez. No wonder, because due to the Inquisition, nakedness only took place behind closed curtains. Here, the play between visibility and painting itself is manifested. The mirror shows the face of an unusually slim Venus who has her back to us rather indistinctly, but somehow seemingly happy. And she looks at us quite unusually whilst we try to recognize her, but her visage is too indistinct. And is it even a Venus? Typical, this ambiguity. By mostly keeping his themes in abeyance, the painter towers above all those who went before him and many who came after him.
Some interpretations talk about the anticipation of impressionism. That may be so, but above all, it's the indeterminacy which makes the viewer speechless and makes these paintings of the artist, who died 1660, seem just so impalpable and innovative. And if there's something about the many assertions and results of the art historians that we will never conclude our interpretations as the hermeneuticists said, then Velázquez is their figurehead. But now we have uttered enough praise. It's up to the individual to go to Vienna – those who undertake the journey will certainly not regret it.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
1010 Vienna, Burgring 5
Tel: +43 1 525 24 0
www.khm.at
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 9.00-18.00
Galerie bei der Albertina
Alfred Klinkan
15.09.2014 – 29.11.2014
By Daniela Gregori
“Good Klinkan, during his short life he never had difficulty with discovering, with inventing”, says Josef Mikl, artist and Klinkan’s teacher, in the catalogue “Bilder aller Art” (Images of all kinds). Alfred Klinkan died 1994 at the age of 44 – an artist who, from the start, in terms of his enjoyment of colour, fabulating and formulating followed his “own way .
One might remember the 80s, when everyone – constantly challenged to arrange everything in a certain order – attempted to see Klinkan as a link between the “wild young” (Junge Wilde) and the “fantastic realists” (Phantastische Realisten). Three decades later this can be perceived as rather absurd, not only from a stylistic point of view. To mark the twentieth anniversary of his death, the Galerie bei der Albertina devotes both an exhibition and a publication to Klinkan, offering insight on the artist’s early works.
Long before the well-known chimeras and mythical creatures, hommages to colleagues from another generation, even prior to the Otto-Mauer Prize, which Klinkan was the first to receive, there is an oeuvre that differs completely from his later works. His first series of works are titled “Krampusbilder”, longish format canvasses which could have just as well been flags or advertising posters, viewed en-passant.
Then followed the so-called Strickbilder (knitted paintings), which seem associated with childlike memory and logic - both formally as well as regarding their wealth of experience: an essay with questionable content that appeared to be handwritten by an elementary school student, a slalom course including the advertising banner in the finish area, or a pair of socks that had found its way on the clothes line.
Socks, washcloth, gloves, a pair of skis – Klinkan deals with a childlike object-world ironically, and sometimes ambiguously. In a gesture of pop - he doesn’t invent, he discovers.
Galerie bei der Albertina
1010 Vienna, Lobkowitzplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 513 14 16
Fax: 01/513 76 74
email: zetter@galerie-albertina.at
www.galerie-albertina.at
Opening hours: Mon - Fri 10-18, Sat 10-13
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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