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New York has always been known for its international flavor and background, but until only recently, Austrian and German culture was not at the forefront of this range, largely due to a complicated history that has taken half a century to resolve. Culture is inevitably wrapped up in its history, and Austrian and German culture are definitely no exceptions, given the events of the last century.

However, Austrian and German modern art of the beginning of the 20st century has found a new place and home in the US, and the location could not be more appropriate: on the Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York, a formally German neighborhood. The Neue Galerie is a small but opulent institution founded in 2001 by two great enthusiasts for this period in art in the US, Ronald Lauder, renowned businessman and philanthropist, and the late Serge Sabarsky, art dealer and pioneer of German and Austrian Expressionist art in New York.

The founding of the Neue Galerie.

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The reemergence of German and Austrian Expressionist art in New York.

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Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I”

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The Neue Galerie has built its reputation on its meticulous showcasing of this previously underrepresented genre of art, which culminated in the history-making acquisition of its prize possession, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt, which the museum proudly refers to as the “Mona Lisa” of its collection. Since then, issues of restitution and provenance of artworks have become an important part of the museum’s program.

Art and history can never be separated, and the Neue Galerie came into its own in the US based on this principle. Can a monetary value be placed on works of art whose history cannot be separated from their aesthetic worth? Has German and Austrian Expressionist art now come full circle in the US, due to the attention that the Neue Galerie New York has brought to it? Sitting in the flawlessly recreated Viennese-style café of the Neue Galerie, Café Sabarsky, CastYourArt discussed these and other questions with Scott Gutterman, deputy director of the Neue Galerie. (jn)

“Contemporary art as a field for human freedom, as a possibility to understand a modern individual’s view of society.” The field of freedom is much broader than it would be without contemporary art, according to Slavko Bogdanovic, lawyer and chairman of the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Vojvodina. Therefore, it is already in the interest of all to maintain its existence.

The basic conditions for contemporary art are undergoing a radical change in Vojvodina, as in other parts of Serbia and the Southeast-European world. The pre-war structures of production, mediation, theory formation, and marketing have been destroyed or taken over; missing resources have been preventing and making the new conditions for advancement more difficult for a long time up until today. But the attitudes of many people in the art enterprise have changed. Instead of commiserating over existing adversities, they are taking action.

Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Vojvodina. Part 1

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Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Vojvodina. Part 2

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Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Vojvodina. Part 3

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In January, 2007, an international competition was announced for the planning of a museum of contemporary art in Vojvodina. The jury selected the Canadian-Serbian team made up of Robert Claiborne, Lia Ruccolo, and Ivan Markov in the following June. The plan for the new museum will introduce a new era to the building of contemporary art. There will be a change, both physically and conceptually, according to Ljubica Milovic. She is the director of the project development and is looking positively forward. Gone is the fear of works of art becoming waterlogged by an overflowing Danube. Gone is also the time of a lack of restoration materials and its correlating continual shortage of space, which was gradually transforming the museum from an exhibition space into an art storage facility. Instead of relying on economic fate, there is hope in new and especially private sponsors, and in a world that is open to a Serbia that can in turn itself be open. The vision of the building has symbolic value. It represents the official opening of the art of the country and its inlet into a world which was, until now, not open to Serbians. However, the project has still not been realised, until now, the museum only exists in the planning stage.

Smaller organizations in the second largest city of Serbia, for example, the Center for New Media kuda.org or the Art Klinika—which dedicates itself to artistically healing a society that is still recovering from the evils of war and nationalism—are more mobile due to their structure, and perhaps more open. It is a question of facing the necessity to meet changing conditions with new concepts, regarding which the director of the museum, Zivko Grozdanic, is full of ideas.

In regard to the issues of for what a museum of modern art should stand and wherein its current efforts in the context of the world of art lie, check out the Serbian view regarding these questions, which were posed by CastYourArt’s Ewa Stern in Novi Sad, in our podcast episode. (wh/jn)

A good five centuries ago, a navigator called Vespucci had gained the respect of a cartographer called Waldseemüller, who decided to christen the Mundus Novus as the continent of America. The interest in Europe in imported goods from the New World had grown significantly in this time. With economic expansion, the Old World had also opened up a new area of knowledge, which was meant to be conquered scientifically.

Against the backdrop of this newly developing landscape of knowledge in the sixteenth century, the Milanese painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo began making portraits of human faces arranged from seafood, fruits, and vegetables in the court of the Habsburg king, Maximillian II. Of course, this kind of metamorphosis of the human face had already been mesmerizing people at the time and could have been considered a sensational visual gimmick on the part of Arcimbaldo, according to Dr. Sylvia Ferino, the curator at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. However, at the same time, Arcimboldo’s pictures were a sign of the awakening of the natural sciences and the humanistic reflection of the European self in the mirror of the new world.

After Arcimboldo was summoned to Vienna by Emperor Ferdinand I as a copy artist and portraitist, his duties were extended under the emperor’s son, Maximillian II, and grandson, Rudolf II. Arcimboldo then documented flora and fauna for the artistically- and scientifically-interested royal family. Elements of this activity found their way into his composite head figures, which also served as subjects of opinion and study for the scholarly writings of the scientists of its time. In addition, Arcimboldo invented hydraulic machines, sketched bridges, developed synaesthetic theories, and acted as the royal court artist due to his universal skills. On top of that, he was held in high regard by his employers for the imperial celebrations that he hosted. He was also well respected by fellow intellectuals such as Ulisse Aldrovandi, the founder of the modern zoology.

Sylvia Ferino – Pears as Tearducts, a Corncob for an Ear. Part 1

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Sylvia Ferino – Pears as Tearducts, a Corncob for an Ear. Part 2

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Dr. Sylvia Ferino, with whom we spoke about the connection of Arcimboldo’s work to the social background of his time, has been honored several times for her work with the icons of Italian Renaissance painting. Along with many other projects, she curated the Arcimboldo exhibition, which was shown at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, and at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. (wh/jn)

“He was discovered at an exhibition. Since then, he has been the outsider who routinely gets slammed by the critics. He is the only “modern” in Vienna. He sees ghosts, secretly suffering souls. He loves to rub salt into wounds. He will end up going mad. These are all compiled from my reviews…” —Oskar Kokoschka to his friend in Berlin, Herwarth Walden, in 1911. He had become acquainted with the publisher of the expressionist magazine, Der Sturm, through the writer and journalist, Karl Kraus. He had been occasionally working with Walden for a year already.

Kokoschka, who wrote this letter when he was just 25 years old, had already gained success in recent years. He was “expressive”—as a painter and writer, as an up-and-coming artist, as well as as a lover. His unbridled expression, his distancing from art nouveau, his bluntness polarized and provoked the artistic establishment and society in Vienna and elsewhere—often to violent reactions. Die Presse called him the “Oberwildling von Wien” (“The Wild Child of Vienna”); in 1909, the opening of his drama, “Mörder - Hoffnung der Frauen” (“Murderer - Liberator of Women”), led to his expulsion from art school.

However, his genius demanded acknowledgment. Adolf Loos had recognized and encouraged his artistic potential early on and guided him along his first steps into painting. Karl Kraus remained close to him, as did Wolfgang Gurlitt, the Berlin art dealer who later became the director of the Neue Galerie in Linz.

Kokoschka found the inspiration for many of his works through his passionate relationship with Alma Mahler. When she got pregnant by him but refused the artist’s undying devotion, Kokoschka was driven to volunteer as a soldier in the First World War.

Kokoschka eventually recovered from the trauma of lost love and its subsequent war injuries, as reported by Alfred Weidinger, a well- known Kokoschka connoisseur and chief curator of the Austrian Belvedere Museum. We asked Wiedinger for an account of Oskar Kokoschka—the man and the painter—as well as about his background and his development. You can hear the results of our discussion in the following three-part podcast series on Oskar Kokoschka. (wh/jn)

Alfred Weidinger - Oskar Kokoschka’s Expressive Art, Interview Part 1

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Alfred Weidinger - Oskar Kokoschka’s Expressive Art, Interview Part 2

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Alfred Weidinger - Oskar Kokoschka’s Expressive Art, Interview Part 3

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The Albertina in Vienna—its distinguished collection of artwork covers, among other things, Albrecht Dürer’s rabbits—shows in its current exhibition, “Art after 1970”, that it also offers more recent works of art. CastYourArt’s Ulrike Grabler and Ewa Stern were at the exhibition opening and asked visitors about their opinion over the museum and the exhibited works. For example, does the museum’s exhibition suit the taste of its tradition-conscious public, and does the size of exhibited works from such artists as Baselitz, Brandl, Lassnig, Rainer or Weiler really determine their aesthetic value? The attending guests readily responded to both questions, but they were not necessarily united in their opinions. Listen and decide for yourself. (wh/jn)

Albertina exhibition. Art after 1970

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