Teilen
English summary September 22 - 28
Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg: Sound of Art. Les Grands Spectacles III
In the magical field of the sound machine
The exhibition trilogy “Les Grands Spectacles” at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg combines music with visual arts. This diffuse field of Sound-Art deals with conceptual art in terms of the Avant-garde of the 20th century.
The young artists of Italian Futurism made everyday sounds to a fetish and revolutionized music history. John Cage’s concepts or Günther Uecker's “Orchestra of Terror” as well as large parts of Audio-Art would be unthinkable without the Futurists. Most recent objects such as the 'Rotation Quintet' by Constantin Luser, Lukas Galehr and Matthias Mokowsky, are also displayed.
The exhibit at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg presents scores, objects, photographs, videos and video installations, and recordings of actions, including works by (among many others) Mauricio Kagel, Joseph Beuys, Dieter Roth and Cory Arcangel. “Sound of Art, Les Grands Spectacles III”, curated by the highly qualified Brigitte Felderer in cooperation with Eleonore Louis, is capable of recharging the batteries of the onlookers eyes - especially following the hectic Salzburg Festival.
Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg
5020 Salzburg, Mönchsberg 22, until 12. 10. 2008
www.museumdermoderne.at
Strabag Kunstforum: Strabag Artaward 08 – Julia Maurer
Speaking paintings
“Artists are people who have nothing to say” is a very apt quotation by Julia Maurer. But even if there are some artists, who definitely have something to say, her statement is dead on target with respect to her own art work. The small and at first sight rather washed-out works by Maurer (born 1983) are anything but bland when you look at them closely. They narrate a very special and incredibly compassionate story, with an ironic view of the world, about lonely people, isolated figures, of people who are not more than a small dot on the landscape, but with a touching symbolic power.
One can easily lose oneself in the 40 very small-sized works, in which one incessantly discovers new details and is always ready to get re-involved with their intimate atmosphere. Even if the artist has nothing to say, she definitely has something to show, and she was remarkably successful at doing so with this exhibit.
Strabag Kunstforum
1220 Vienna, Donau-City Strasse 9, until 17.10.2008
www.strabag-kunstforum.at
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz: Oskar Kokoschka – A vagabond in Linz. Wild, ostracised, acclaimed
Master of self-realisation
“Which one of these three drawings could be the work of an amateur in a mental home?” is one of the questions asked in a little booklet. Answer: “You will be amazed: the upper right hand one! The other two were described as masterly graphics by Kokoschka”. A shack was constrtucted for exhibit “Oskar Kokoschka. A vagabond in Linz. Wild, ostracised, acclaimed” exhibit, in which, with the help of copies and documentary material the “Degenerate Art” exhibit becomes comprehensible. Today, these socalled ostracised works are all well known, but they still sends cold shivers up and down your spine. Six years after the end of the NS regime, Kokoschka exhibited his work in Linz – for the first time since 1945.
In contrast to the two Kokoschka-exhibits in Vienna, the Lentos does not only rely on the aura of his works – the curators (Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller, Nina Kirsch) included the documentation of the pictures' relationship to the city: to which extent did Wolfgang Gurlitt, founder of the Lentos, woo for the artist, how politicians adorned themselves with him – or rejected him, becomes apparent in press clippings and photographs.
Kokoschka’s time in Linz was not necessarily his most artistically exciting. Many of the works were already presented at the Belvedere or the Albertina, including portraits from the 1910’s, the Alma Mahler works, early act drawings or Kokoschka’s coloured pencil drawing of goats.
With the documentary presentation – which include photographs in which Kokoschka could act out his nearly comedian-like lust for self realization - the Lentos succeeds in adding a further biographical facet to Oskar Kokoschka.
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
4020 Linz, Enrst-Koref-Promenade 1, until 05.10. 2008
www.lentos.at
Kunstforum der Bank Austria: Fotografis – Collection Reloaded
Treasure trove in black-and-white
It is the rule rather than the exception that a corporate collection is carefully planned from the start, and that those considerations made at the beginning are systematically pursued. As Anna Auer and Werner H. Mraz started the collection Fotografis for the Länderbank (Bank Austria's predecessor), they already knew what they wanted. They therefore not only collected photography, but they also organized symposiums in which internationally renowned experts took part to communicate the importance of photography as a medium of art.
The current exhibit at the Bank Austria Kunstforum brings those treasures to the light. It truly offers an overview of historical photography, even if most of the photographs are more recent, and are therefore less valuable. They are all here: Bourke-White and Weegee, Talbot and Atget, Horst and Fenton, Steichen and Stieglitz, Man Ray and Rodtschenko, Cartier-Bresson and Strand – and of course the Pictorialists such as Kuhn. Famous works including the portrait of Meret Oppenheim by Man Ray, the leap frog man” by Muybridge, Diane Arbus’ giant or Paul Strand’s “White Fence” alternate with works by less famous artists, but who turn out to be true discoveries. Among them Felice Antonio Beato, with his incredibly clear and sharp image of the pyramids behind the village of Gizeh or Leslie Krims with his series “Human Beings as a Piece of Sculpture” (1969): a man without legs sitting on a pedestal, or a pregnant woman blowing huge soap bubbles – scenes, which pre-empt Erwin Wurm’s works.
While the rather conservative hanging is comprehensible, it seems superfluous to have added contemporary works. While Erwin Wurm’s, Andreas Gursky’s and Margeritha Spiluttini’s large format works loosen up the show, they do not offer a new perspective and seem to – in the context of the numerous black-and-white photos - assume an air of too much importance.
Kunstforum der Bank Austria
1010 Vienna, Freyung 8, until 29. 10. 2008
www.kunstforumwien.at
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
 |
|
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
