Libidinally charged works of the last 3 decades by Herbert Brandl are presented by Florian Steininger and Ingried Brugger in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien. CastYourArt visited the artist at his atelier and produced an artist-portrait. Watch now …

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The images constantly seduce the gaze, captivate it and invite the viewer to transcend the pictorial surface, look behind it in order to discover the spaces opening up within their –our- interior.
Brandl does not start his work on the basis of reality in order to abstract from it, he rather develops a pictorial grammar of perception –feelings or thoughts- and avails himself of the musical vocabulary of colour and of the personal expressive panache as trademark. more »

He has no employees, no assistants, no website or E-mail address. Ever since Glenn Murcutt opened his own office in Sydney in 1969, he works alone. An exhibition on Glenn Murcutt’s work can be seen at the Architekturzentrum Wien in Vienna till 13.02.2011.

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He states that he wants to free himself from the pressure of being responsible for staff. If necessary he cooperates with other architects, like his wife Wendy Levin. In the last 40 years, more than 500 buildings have been constructed, all in Australia, almost exclusively residential buildings and besides a few exceptions, designed, planned and implemented under his supervision. more »

On the occasion of the “Botero” exhibition in the Bank Austria Kunstforum, curator Dr. Evelyn benesch will speak about the artist’s Abu Ghraib series.

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In the years 2004-2005, Columbian painter Fernando Botero worked on a series of paintings named Abu Ghraib. Ever since the photographs of the Abu Ghraib prison were published in 2004, this name came to symbolize a policy that endorses abuse and torture in the name of justice. The hypocrisies around the events in Abu Ghraib prompted the artist to paint this cycle. US museums simply disregarded these works during Botero exhibitions. When liberal Berkeley University finally showed this cycle, Botero donated the entire series to the university in gratitude. In the exhibition “Botero”, in Bank Austria Kunstforum, “Abu Ghraib”, the outraged artist’s cycle on human brutality, will be on display until January 15, 2012. (wh/ca)

Fernando Botero: „In my paintings, there are improbable, not impossible things. “Fernando Boteros work is on view at Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna. An artist- and exhibition-portrait.

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“When you start a painting, it is outside of you. By the time you finish, you are already inhabiting it.”

The history of art belongs to those who have learned to see differently; those who have made visible what is hidden. The artist envisages the object, and presents it in a form which allows for immediate recognition of the message. The energy and emotion that flow into the picture become an intuitive experience, as occurs with the erotic friction between reality and art in Fernando Botero’s oeuvre. more »

Between mythical creatures and human forms, between dream and nightmare, we find ourselves in a world where life crawls and insects swarm: Welcome to the land of the Blue Hour. A selection of works by Jan Fabre in the Picture Gallery of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna can be seen from 4 May till 28 August 2011. This podcast was realised with the kind support of UNIQUA ArtCercles.

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Interview with Jasper Sharp, the curator of “The Hour Blue” exhibition of Jan Fabre at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

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Jan Fabre is an artist we can safely describe as a multidisciplinary all-rounder. He is a painter, graphic artist, stage director, choreographer, lighting designer, author and editor – drawing from all fields of creativity: Arts, sciences, philosophy, literature, religion…nothing escapes him. more »

For the seventh time, Viennafair takes place from May 12th to May 15th, with a focus on Central and Eastern European art. We spoke with Georg Schöllhammer and Hedwig Saxenhuber, the artistic directors of the fair.
Viennafair 2011 - Trailer

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Interview with G. Schöllhammer and H. Saxenhuber, the artistic directors of the fair

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With 47 registrations from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe this CEE´s focus is the largest so far in the history of the “VIENNAFAIR”, including this year such significant positions as the Riga Gallery from Latvia, Plan B and Ivan from Romania, lokal_30 from Poland or Tulips and Roses from Lithuania as well as Skuc and P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E from Slovenia. With Gisich from St. Petersburg,GMG and paperworks from Moscow, the Russian scene shows again a strong presence in Vienna after a long while. With a total of five galleries, amongst these acb and Raday, Hungary is again strongly represented as in previous years. New this year are the Newman Popiashvili Gallery from Georgia and Tengri Umai Gallery from Kazakhstan. Also for the first time in Vienna (present with artists- streichen weil eh klar) are the Jiri Svestka Gallery from Prague, Art Radionica Lazareti and Contemporary Croatian Photography from Croatia.

„The 1960ies: a fantastic modern“ in the MUSA Vienna reveals the spirit of a decade marked by radical upheaval, along the way the entire who’s who of Austrian art is displayed.

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Not only in politics, also in the domain of the arts the 1960ies were a decade of worldwide upheaval, the radical changes can also be retraced in the Austrian art scene of that period. At the beginning of the decade, art became in many cases more political and provocative in its statements, drawing on subjects in between the realities of the mundane and the artistic. The convergence of high culture and popular culture has its beginnings in these movements, followed by a fundamental challenge to the previous notion of art. more »

Aivazovsky is regarded as the master of seascapes. In his lifetime he dedicated himself to this motif as a metaphor for life, of desire as well as the struggle between nature and culture.

For the first time, the Bank Austria Kunstforum shows a retrospective of the artist outside of Russia and the Ukraine. There are fifty representative paintings on display, among them main works from the Aivazovsky Museum in Feodosia and the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg that have never been shown abroad.

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As legend has it, he died in his studio with a brush in his hand, 111 years ago. In his exceptionally long life he actually left only this one painting unfinished, out of the estimated 6000 he painted. In his lifetime his works were already marvelled at, admired, venerated – and purchased. more »

An exhibition by Kucsko with generative Sound installation by Karlheinz ESSL in Bank Austria Kunstforum - tresor.

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Audiointerview with Karlheinz Essl in German

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Audiointerview with Kucsko in German

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The vault of the Bank Austria Kunstforum is a room full of references and allusions, with its own history and charisma, a chamber of wonders, whose architecture, with its safe deposits boxes inseparably built-in as a part of the concrete, its impenetrable reinforced concrete walls, their double protective layers and its access control corridor, makes it “ready made”, just waiting to be filled as a vessel for ideas. Does that make it “art”?

Jürgenssen explores the scope of female identity constructions and the gender roles within her sociocultural environment of the 1970ies. By means of drawings and photography she develops surreal and subversive counter-concepts and demonstrates that humor and poetry can very well go along with feminist strategies.

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In cooperation with Verbund Collection, the Bank Austria Kunstforum has the first posthumous retrospective of Birgit Jürgenssen on display, with 250 works of art of different media. In drawings, watercolors, Polaroids, photograms, objects, performances and videos, Jürgenssen explores the scope of female identity constructions and the gender roles in her immediate sociocultural environment. more »