A. Tikhomirov
Art of Austria at the beginning of the 19th century. developed in an atmosphere of routine and stagnation in all areas of the country's economic and cultural life. Metternich, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs, then (from 1821) as Chancellor, established a reactionary political regime that hampered the economic and cultural development of the country; his policies suppressed any freedom-loving initiatives. Under such circumstances, it was difficult to expect a flourishing in the field of art.
Among the specific aspects of Austrian art of the 19th century. his almost continuous connection with German art must be noted. Prominent artists from one country, often even at the very beginning of their creative journey, they moved to another, joining the mainstream of its art. Vienna-born Moritz von Schwind, for example, became a primarily German artist.
To the features of Austrian art of the 19th century. we must also take into account the fact that artistic life Austria at that time was concentrated in one city - Vienna, which, by the way, was also the center musical culture of global significance. The Habsburg court, which played a significant role in the stronghold of international reaction of that time - in the Holy Alliance, sought to give its capital exceptional splendor, using both foreign and domestic artists. Vienna had one of the oldest academies in Europe (founded in 1692). True, by the beginning of the 19th century. it was a stagnant institution, but by the middle of the century its pedagogical importance increased. She began to attract artists different nationalities(Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats), who were part of the Habsburg Empire and, in the process of bourgeois development, began to strive to create their own cultural personnel. In the 19th century Gradually, within the framework of the “dual monarchy”, national art schools these nations, showing more creative power than Austrian art itself, as can be seen in the example of the creativity of the Hungarian and Czech peoples. It was from among these nations that he would emerge in the 19th century. a number of significant artists.
Austrian architecture during the first half of the 19th century. didn't create anything significant. The situation has been changing since the 50s, when extensive construction was undertaken in Vienna due to the redevelopment of the city due to rapid population growth. The Dane Theophilus Edward Hansen (1813-1891), who in-depth studied the monuments of ancient Greece on site when he built an observatory in Athens, did a lot of construction in the capital. The somewhat cold, classicizing buildings of Hansen (Parliament, 1873-1883) are distinguished by their wide scope and large scale, but their facades did not reflect the internal structure of the building. The parliament was included in the ensemble of pompous buildings on the Ringstrasse, in which the architects eclectically used various styles. Sickard von Sickardsburg (1813-1868) and Eduard van der Nyll (1812-1868) were guided by the construction of the Opera House in Vienna (1861-1869). french renaissance. The Town Hall (1872-1883) was built by Friedrich Schmidt (1825-1891) in the spirit of Dutch Gothic. Semper built a lot in Vienna (see the section on German art), and, as always, his buildings were based on the principles of Renaissance architecture. Sculpture - particularly monumental sculpture - complemented the representational public buildings, but did not have much artistic significance.
Classicism, which to some extent manifested itself in architecture, found almost no expression in painting (however, heroic views of Italy were painted in Rome by the Tyrolean Joseph Anton Koch, 1768-1839). At the beginning of the 19th century. painting was touched by romanticism. It was in Vienna in 1809 German artists Overbeck and Pforr founded the Union of St. Luke. After these artists moved to Rome, they were joined by Joseph von Furich (1800-1876), a native of the Czech Republic, a student of the Prague Academy, who worked in Prague and Vienna; he, like all Nazarenes, wrote compositions on religious subjects.
However, what was decisive for the art of Austria was not the romanticism of the Nazarenes, but the art of Biedermeier (see the section on German art), which can be seen in the development of all genres of art, including portraiture. The portrait shows the arrogant appearance of an 18th century aristocrat. is replaced by an image of a person in his home family environment; interest in the inner spiritual world of a “private person” with its worries and joys deepens. Not spectacular imposingness, but scrupulous precision is also revealed in the manner of execution. Among portrait miniaturists of the early 19th century. Moritz Michael Daffinger (1790-1849) stood out. His portrait of his wife (Vienna, Albertina), despite its detail and small size, is an emotional painting of a broadly and boldly taken relationship. There is something romantic in the stormy landscape, in the animated face of the woman depicted, and in the tenderness with which man and nature are fused together.
The features of a new, bourgeois portrait gradually established themselves in the work of Joseph Kreutzinger (1757-1829), as evidenced by his works completed at the beginning of the 19th century. He seeks to characterize spiritual world new people in educational circles that the era is beginning to bring forward. In the portrait of the Hungarian educator Ferenc Kazinczy, who suffered for participation in the Jacobin conspiracy (1808; Budapest, Academy of Sciences), the artist conveyed the nervous tension of Kazinczy’s intellectual face. Portrait of Eva Passy (Vienna, Gallery 19th and 20th centuries) - typical work Biedermeier: the calm beauty of everyday life is reflected in the entire appearance of a middle-aged woman, looking attentively at the viewer, of a rather ordinary appearance, but possessing a calm consciousness of her dignity. The careful finishing of all the details of the decoration is noteworthy: lace, stitching, ribbons.
All these features are repeated in the work of one of the most typical representatives of the Austrian Biedermeier, Friedrich von Amerling (1803-1887). His works of the 30s are especially interesting: a lovingly executed portrait of his mother (1836; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries) and a large portrait of Rudolf von Arthaber with children (1837; ibid.). This is already a portrait becoming a genre everyday scene: A widower, surrounded by his children, sits in a well-furnished room in an easy chair and looks at a miniature, which is shown to him by his four-year-old daughter, who is hardly aware that this is an image of her recently deceased mother. Sentimentality, however, does not turn into sugary tearfulness; everything is calm, decorous, and serious. Such stories obviously corresponded to the spirit of the times. Amerling's talented contemporary Franz Eibl (1806-1880) owns a portrait of the landscape painter Wipplinger (1833; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries), contemplating a portrait of his deceased sister.
Other Austrian portrait painters also often painted group portraits - mostly large families. Sometimes these everyday scenes, as if painted from life, came close to depicting contemporary events that seemed Significant, becoming unique historical documents of the era, as if connecting with those scenes of parades with portrait images of those present, which Franz Kruger painted in Berlin. Such scenes of modern events with the inclusion of portrait figures were three large compositions written by Johann Peter Krafft (1780-1856) for the audience hall of the State Chancellery of the Palace Castle: “The entry into Vienna of the victors in the Battle of Leipzig”, “The meeting of Emperor Franz by the Viennese citizens in the Vienna Hofburg at his return from the Diet in Bratislava" and "Franz's departure after a long illness." The great thing about these works - image crowds, especially foreground figures. The second composition seems more successful - the meeting of Franz with a burgher crowd. With all the deliberateness of the loyal tendency that introduces false note, the crowd of a large number of figures is made masterfully and very lively.
Paintings of this kind approached the genre, the depiction of modern life. Genre painting became widespread in the Austrian Biedermeier. In Austria, due to the strict framework established by the Metternich regime, she was able to go only along the narrow channel of depicting insignificant Episodes in the private life of the petty-bourgeois man in the street. Painting of a large theme was excluded from the horizons of the Biedermeier era until the revolution of 1848.
The artists of this movement, who formed the main core of the Old Viennese school, including the most outstanding of them, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865), consciously set the goal of their art to be a truthful depiction of reality. But this truth could only be very relative under conditions of police surveillance. If one could believe the idyllic picture of Austrian life that the Biedermeier artists created, the revolutionary events of 1848 would have been absolutely incomprehensible and impossible. In fact, the brilliance of the court elite of the feudal state and the relative prosperity of the middle classes rested on the brutal exploitation and poverty of the working people, especially the peasantry. And yet this art was almost the only opportunity for more or less wide circles the Austrian petty bourgeoisie to express their small joys - family and economic, to display the beauty and peace of everyday life, despite the fact that this was possible only within the narrow limits of what was permitted by the “protective regime”. A stream of human warmth penetrates into these small paintings, executed not only with conscientious care, but also with great skill and artistic taste. In Waldmüller's work, almost all genres of Austrian Biedermeier painting received, as it were, their final embodiment. He exhibited his first portraits at an academic exhibition in 1822, his first genre paintings in 1824. He attracted attention and was successful. One of Waldmüller's first orders was characteristic. Colonel Stierle-Holzmeister commissioned him to paint a portrait of his mother “exactly as she is.” This corresponded to Waldmüller's own artistic guidelines. In the portrait (c. 1819; Berlin, National Gallery), the customer's requirement to be documented accurately was fully fulfilled by the artist, despite the somewhat unattractiveness of the model with carefully curled curls over a flabby face and an abundance of ribbons, lace and bows. But these details are perceived and shown by the artist not mechanically externally, but as a characteristic of that bourgeois circle frozen in its pettiness; the artist appreciates and loves this way of life and elevates even the external details of this life into an immutable law.
Self-portrait is also typical for early works (1828; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries). Here the artist makes the same somewhat smug assertion of the bourgeois way of life by depicting himself. Waldmüller painted himself as he was or wanted to be during these years of his success - a dapper dandy with an intricate tie, collar, formal striped vest under an elegant dark suit; his reddish hair is curled, next to his light gloves and silk hat are a flower and lush leaves. The pink face with blue eyes is calm, cheerful, almost serene in its youthful self-confidence; the artist shows himself as a successful member of a prosperous society who does not want much and is happy with the little he has achieved. Waldmüller's portrait heritage is extensive, in it one can trace some evolution towards greater depth psychological characteristics, as can be seen in the portrait depicting the elderly Russian diplomat Count A.K. Razumovsky (1835; Vienna, private collection), sitting in a dark robe at a desk. The elongated, thin face with sunken cheeks is subtle and restrained and calm. Somewhat asymmetrical eyes look towards the viewer, but past him, as if mentally imagining the one whose letter he has just read. He is motionless. Everything is immersed in partial shade, except for the face, the letter with the envelope, part of the vest and hands, protruding as light outlines from the darkness of the office, the walls of which are hung with paintings. This is one of Waldmüller's best works, and indeed one of the best portraits of the Biedermeier era.
Very great place Waldmüller's work is dominated by genre and everyday scenes - from the life of mainly ordinary people in the city and countryside. The artist depicted peasant life long before the Düsseldorfers. He paints from the nature of the people around him. But already in the plots themselves, an idyllic unctuousness is striking. This can be seen in most of Waldmüller’s works of the 40s: “Return from School” (Berlin, National Gallery), “Perchtolds Dorf Village Wedding” (Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th Centuries), “Midsummer’s Choir” (Vienna, Historical Museum), “Farewell of the Bride” (Berlin, National Gallery). These compositions sometimes contain a lot of figures and are always carefully worked out in detail; The most successful thing about them is the figures of old people and especially children, despite the fact that the good behavior and cheerfulness of the pretty boys and girls he depicts makes a somewhat deliberate impression.
Already from the 30s. The artist is fascinated by the task of incorporating figures and figurative groups into the landscape. The problem of sunlight, the transmission of air, space, permeated with the sparkle of reflexes, gradually began to interest Waldmüller more and more. At the same time, his optimistic attitude is very organically embodied in these compositions. As an example of such a new solution, we can point out “Gatherers of brushwood in the Vienna Woods” (1855; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries) and “ Early spring in the Vienna Woods" (1862; New York, collection of O. Kallir). The rendering of objects enveloped in air and sunlight (these late works were written by Waldmüller in the open air) did not weaken the impression of materiality: the trunks of his beeches and elms with their round, spotted bark are voluminous and material; the folds of the peasant clothes of his healthy children, scurrying among the thickets covering the dense Earth of the suburban hills, are voluminous and material.
From 1829 to 1857 Waldmüller was a professor at the Vienna Academy; young people sought to learn from him, he supported young artists of other nationalities in every possible way. In particular, Waldmüller addressed the Hungarian Diet with a proposal for a number of organizational measures to support the artistic education of talented Hungarian youth. Waldmüller, as a realist artist, stands in opposition to academic teaching methods and publishes a sharp polemical brochure “On the more appropriate teaching of painting and plastic arts.” The treatise infuriates the academic Areopagus, persecution is organized against Waldmüller, and they begin to fight him with administrative measures. In 1849, Waldmüller published a new brochure, “Proposals for the Reform of the Royal Austrian Academy.” The Academy seeks to reduce his salary to the level of a museum watchman, and then removes him from teaching and reduces his pension.
Waldmüller is far superior to his contemporaries in many respects. And yet, both in the field of landscape and in the field of genre, one cannot ignore several artists of lesser importance, whose work is characteristic of Austrian art. In the field of landscape, this is the Alt family - Jakob Alt (1789-1872) and his sons Franz (1821-?) and especially the most gifted of them, Rudolf (1812-1905). All three were masters of watercolor, working extensively in Italy, but at the same time they significantly contributed to the growth of interest in landscape motifs in Austria. Jacob Alt published in 1818-1822. a series of lithographs “Picturesque Journey along the Danube”, and in 1836 - “Views of Vienna and its environs”. Alt's attempt was not only an individual experiment, it responded to the ever-increasing process of growth national identity, expressed in awakening interest in native nature.
Rudolf von Alt learned a lot from the artists of the English school; his works are distinguished by warm colors and a sense of light-air environment. At first he painted architectural motifs (“View of the Church in Klosterneuburg”, 1850; Vienna, Albertina). But in later works, his views of the city take on the character of sketches of the life of modern Vienna (“Market on Palace Square in Vienna”, 1892; ibid.). While maintaining the transparent lightness of watercolor, Rudolf Alt increasingly increases the expressive power of the rhythm of volumes and the characteristics of the motifs he took (Siena, 1871; Vienna, private collection). Around these artists, a large number of gifted landscape painters worked diligently and often successfully, whose significance, however, was predominantly local (R. Ribarz, F. Gauermann, F. Loos and many others).
Also in the field of genre, Waldmüller was not an isolated phenomenon. Joseph Danhauser (1805-1845) was very popular in his time with his sentimental compositions (for example, “ Mother's love", 1839; Vienna, Gallery 19th and 20th centuries).
Among the numerous genre painters, Austrian art historians now single out Michael Neder (1807-1882), who previously disdainfully remained silent. A shoemaker by profession, he, despite four years of academic study, retained some of the spontaneity of a self-taught person. There is no virtuosity in his paintings, but there is no template in them either, they are human. Neder was the first in these years to turn to depicting the life of artisans and working people (his drawing “The Shoemaker’s Workshop” is kept in the Vienna Albertina, where he depicted himself in one of the figures - need forced him, even after the Academy, to earn his living as a shoemaker).
In the 70-80s. In Austria, two lines in the development of art sharply emerged. The rapidly enriching elite of the bourgeoisie begins to buy works of art with “museum appearance” - “under the old masters” (mainly Italian). In Austria this false direction is served by Hans Makart (1840-1884). Hans Makart, who studied with Piloty in Munich, settled in Vienna when he was not yet thirty years old. He worked in Munich, London, Paris, Antwerp and Madrid, was in Egypt, and achieved his greatest success in Vienna, where he was a professor at the Academy for the last five years of his life. Makart enjoyed great success, especially among the prosperous bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Vienna. His art, outwardly showy, decorative and imitative, does not have the genuine qualities of those classics which it seeks to eclipse. The ability to paint accessories received from Piloty - fabrics, furs, etc. - Makart supplements with countless figures of naked women in far-fetched angles, devoid of the truth of life. Makart's rhetoric is characteristic of the 19th and 20th centuries in the Vienna Gallery. fragment (almost 5 X 8 m) of his “Triumph of Ariadne” (1873), which served as a curtain Comic Opera in Vienna.
However, the pomp of official art was opposed by realistic art. As one of the manifestations of the vitality of realism, one should recognize the work of the Austrian officer, who worked a lot in Hungary, August von Pettenkofen (1822-1889). Pettenkofen studied at the Vienna Academy for eight years. He witnessed the revolutionary events of 1848-1849. and left sketches of them. His sketches ("Storm of the Buda Castle by the People", 1849; Budapest, Historical Gallery, etc.) are distinguished by the acute truthfulness with which the artist conveys the dramatically tense episodes he fleetingly saw. Pettenkofen fell in love with Hungary - the country and the people. For almost forty years he worked every summer in the Tisza valley; finally settling in the town of Szolnok (later an entire artistic colony of Hungarian artists arose there), Pettenkofen painted markets with carts, horses at a watering hole, gardens with fences, Hungarian peasants and peasant women in their picturesque village attire, gypsies near camps and villages, sometimes painted several a little hard, but with a keen interest in the life of the country he loved.
The work of the Tyrolean Franz von Defregger (1835-1921) who worked in Germany is more compromised. Defregger gave up farming and began to seriously engage in painting only in the twenty-fifth year of his life. Without finishing his studies in Munich, he left for his native Tyrol and began to paint portraits of the peasants around him. After a trip to Paris, he studied with Piloty in Munich, and from 1878 to 1910 he himself became a professor at the Munich Academy. There is too much deliberately festive in Defregger's paintings - red-cheeked girls and dashing guys in folk costumes. But there is another side to his work. In particular, the paintings depicting the Tyroleans in the fight against Napoleon's invasion are very convincing in their character. These are his compositions “The Last Militia” (1874; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries), showing how the older generation of the village goes to the front, armed with homemade weapons, and “Before the uprising of 1809” (1833; Dresden, Gallery). Defregger finds a characteristic pictorial language for this event - a restrained hot range, rhythm of movements, expressiveness of types.
Just like in Germany and many other European countries, the end of the 19th century. marked in Austrian art by the emergence of new modernist movements. But this stage in the development of Austrian art belongs to the next historical period. Outwardly, this is expressed in the emergence of the Vienna exhibition association “Secession”.
Klimt Gustav (Klimt, Gustav) (1862-1918), Austrian artist, founder of modernism in Austrian painting.
Born in the Vienna suburb of Baumgarten on July 14, 1862 in the family of the artist-engraver and jeweler E. Klimt. He studied with his father, and in 1875-1883 - at the craft school at the Vienna Austrian Museum of Art and Industry.
Initially he was greatly influenced by the art of G. Makart. After graduation, he worked with his brother Ernst and the artist F. Match, decorating decorative painting theaters of the Austro-Hungarian province (in Reichenberg, Fiume and Carlsbad - Karlovy Vary). Since 1885, they also designed Viennese buildings (among these works, the picturesque decor of the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum stands out - vivid examples of the magnificent "Ringstrasse style", as Viennese historicism of the turn of the century is usually called).
With the death of brother Ernst (1892), the team disbanded. Increasingly drawn into the elements of modernity and, accordingly, into opposition to the academic tradition, Klimt became in 1897 one of the founders of the Vienna Secession (German: Sezession - “fall away”, “separation”), independent from the Academy of Arts, and its first president. The Vienna Workshops (1903), created on his initiative, played an important role in the stylistic renewal of Austrian design. For the Secession exhibition building (architects J. Hoffmann and J. Olbrich, 1897), Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze (1901-1902), embodying the themes of the Ninth Symphony.
Another landmark decorative work, a cycle of allegorical panels, the so-called “faculty paintings”, for the University of Vienna (1900-1903; only fragments of the cycle have survived in various collections), caused a scandal and was rejected by the customers: Klimt’s ladies symbolizing Philosophy and others disciplines seemed too cutesy and incompatible with the spirit of strict science.
As an easel artist, Klimt went down in history, primarily with his highly expressive portraits of women (E. Flöge, 1902, Historical Museum, Vienna; A. Bloch-Bauer, 1907, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries, Vienna) and symbolic paintings, saturated with dramatic, “fatal” eroticism (“Judith 1”, 1901, Austrian Gallery in Belvedere, Vienna; “The Kiss”, 1907-1908, ibid.; “Salome”, 1909, International Museum contemporary art, Venice; "Danae", 1910, Welz Gallery, Salzburg). He was also a master of ornamental and colorful landscapes ("Park", 1910, Museum of Modern Art, New York). His last major monumental work was the design of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1911). Having left the Secession in 1906, he founded the new Union of Austrian Artists, supporting innovative artists at its exhibitions, in particular O. Kokoschka and E. Schiele.
Only by 1917 did he win full official recognition, becoming an honorary professor at the Vienna and Munich academies. Klimt died in Vienna on February 6, 1918.
Austria retained for centuries star status a cultural center that attracts into its orbit artists of a truly planetary scale. Today, the Austrian art market continues to be one of the richest in Europe.
The heyday of Austria as an arts center began in the 18th century and occurred under the patronage of the imperial house of Habsburg. During the heyday of the empire, the Baroque dominated, famous representatives of which were Johann Michael Rottmayr and Franz Anton Maulberch, who was distinguished by a very peculiar, from the point of view of his contemporaries, careless manner. These artists, whose works reach prices ranging from $200,000 to $300,000, are infrequent guests both at auctions and in galleries. Rottmayr is sometimes found in Vienna, and Maulberch is found more in London and Germany.
Equally rare in Vienna, and throughout the world, are the works of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, amazing for their time. Initially working in the style of classicism, the sculptor, as his mental disorder developed, began to create so-called “characteristic heads” - busts with broken, bizarre facial expressions. It was these “heads” that turned out to be the most famous part of Messerschmidt’s legacy. The record for his work was set in 2005 at Sotheby's auction in New York - $4,300,000.
But the works of Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder, a talented portrait painter who was highly revered at the court of the Russian emperors, are exhibited in Vienna quite often. Lampi was very hardworking and left behind a large number of magnificent portraits of aristocratic persons from Austria, Italy, Poland and Russia. At the same time, the prices for his canvases will pleasantly surprise art lovers on a limited budget: this moment the auction record is $103,000.
While in Vienna, it is worth paying attention to the large portrait of Emperor Joseph II at the Vienna Academy of Arts.
In the footsteps of Biedermeier
In the first half of the 19th century, Biedermeier became widely popular in Europe. This artistic style developed within the framework of romanticism, which replaced the empire style. In Biedermeier, empire forms were reworked, acquiring intimacy and serving to create coziness in a burgher home. Such painting is characterized by a careful depiction of details of the interior, nature and everyday life. Among the Austrian artists of this trend, Moritz von Schwind, known for his frescoes, in particular the painting of the Vienna Opera, stands out, almost never seen at auctions, and Ferdinand Waldmüller - frequent guest on trading platform. His auction record is about a million euros.
The figure of the academic artist, representative of the historical genre and portrait painter Hans Makart stands apart. In art history he is known for his influence on Gustav Klimt, and his impressive studio, with its abundance of museum-quality objects, was the center of cultural life in Vienna during his time. Although the artist's work often appears on Vienna's auction floors, his record of £155,000 was set in London.
Art Nouveau and Expressionism
Austrian fine art gained worldwide fame at the turn of the 20th century, when Vienna became the center of two important movements: Art Nouveau (more commonly called Art Nouveau) and Expressionism. One of the central figures in all of European Art Nouveau and, undoubtedly, central in Austrian Art Nouveau was Gustav Klimt. The frank eroticism of his work brought a share of scandal into the artist’s life. However, the artistic elite and many wealthy patrons burned with passionate love for this Art Nouveau genius. Therefore, the master could afford to choose customers and nurture his irresistible craving for female body, despite the fuss in the camp of limited bigots.
In 2006, one of the most famous and significant paintings in the art world, a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, was purchased for the astonishing price of $135 million by Ronald Lauder for the Neue Galerie in New York. This amount was not only a cost record for a work by the artist, but also a world record for a painting at the time of sale.
There are many places in Vienna where you can see Klimt's works. In particular, the already mentioned Belvedere Gallery, where his painting “The Kiss” primarily stands out.
Speaking about Austrian Art Nouveau, it is impossible to ignore the “Vienna Secession” - an association of Viennese artists led by Klimt in the Art Nouveau era. In Vienna, an exhibition pavilion with the same name has been preserved, where you can see a frieze made by Klimt with unstable paints for one of the exhibitions.
Of the modernists who were part of the association, besides Klimt, it is perhaps necessary to note Koloman Moser - one of the most significant artists in Austria, best known for the fact that in 1902 he, together with the artist Joseph Hoffmann and the entrepreneur Fritz Werndorfer, created a very successful enterprise Wiener Werkstatte (for production of industrial design following the example of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England). The biggest art collection Koloman Moser is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna, and prices for his works do not exceed several hundred thousand dollars.
In addition to the modernists, the association included representatives of expressionism, the main tendency of which was to express the emotional characteristics of the image or the emotional state of the artist himself. Among the masters of this movement in Austria, the most significant figures are Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.
While in Europe young painters of the first half of the 20th century were working on the discoveries of the artists of Paris, whose work was directed outward, Viennese artists went inside the space of the human spirit and, under the influence of Freud’s ideas, indulged in reflection on the power of instincts and the subconscious. Kokoschka, Schiele and others found their own visual arts to convey these ideas on canvas.
Egon Schiele's life was short but fruitful. His works were in demand during his lifetime, and after Klimt’s death he rightfully claimed the role of leading artist in Austria. Today, prices for Schiele's paintings are mostly landscapes and portraits made in various techniques, - reaches 20 million dollars, and the most famous erotic drawings on paper can be sold for 10 million dollars.
The most important collection of Schiele's works available to the public is in the already mentioned Leopold Museum in Vienna.
Another major figure of Austrian and world expressionism is Oskar Kokoschka, an artist and writer of Czech origin. IN early period In his work, Kokoschka was fascinated by the portrait genre. His style developed from a subtle linear interpretation to bright impasto painting, but tragedy and tension did not leave his canvases. Having lived a bright and long life, Kokoschka was eventually relegated to the background, but now interest in his legacy has increased significantly. Accordingly - and prices. The record for a painting was set in London in February 2011 - at 1.6 million pounds. It is interesting to note a very lively market for the artist’s drawings, where the record price was about $1 million, with an average cost of about $100,000. The artist’s paintings often appear at Viennese auctions.
From fantastic realism to modern times
After the Second World War, the Viennese school of fantastic realism, close to surrealism and based on the traditions of the German Renaissance, was formed in the fine arts of Austria, which had a pronounced mystical and religious character and addressed the timeless theme of exploring hidden corners human soul. Its prominent representative, as well as one of the founders, is Ernst Fuchs. The rapid development of the school occurred in the early 60s of the 20th century. Finding himself on the same wavelength with psychedelic experiments, Fuchs is engaged not only in painting, but also works in theater and cinema, creates architectural projects and sculptures, writes poetry and philosophical essays. The record price for the artist's works is fixed at 150 thousand dollars. Large museums do not favor the work of this direction with their attention. But who knows, perhaps Fuchs will someday be valued as highly as Roerich.
Among contemporary artists, we must mention Gottfried Helnwein, Arnulf Rainer, and in the field of photography, the name of Ernest Haas stands out. The work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser is also widely known. Like Fuchs, Hundertwasser, in addition to painting, made a significant contribution to architecture, decorating many of the most ordinary buildings in bright colors, designing them “naturally,” “ecologically,” and “biomorphically.” At auction sites, the artist's record was 240 thousand pounds. His works can be bought both in Vienna and at the world's largest auctions.
In the 60s, the radical and provocative movement “Viennese Actionism” arose in the Austrian capital. The actions of the Viennese developed simultaneously with other avant-garde movements in Europe, in particular with the Fluxus movement, but were more radical and prone to destruction and violence. The works and performances, steeply infused with the memory of World War II, were in some sense a reaction to oppression and social hypocrisy in Austria. Participants in the movement mutilated themselves and manipulated organic waste products. They saw in these actions a deliverance from the aggression hidden in a person, which manifests itself in the consciousness of the individual as a result of the suppression by society of a person’s basic instincts.
Distracting from the horrors of actionism, we find that among the currently active Austrian artists on the world stage, Erwin Wurm, who works in many types and genres, but is best known as a sculptor, is noticeable. In the 1990s, Wurm created a series of “one-minute sculptures”, which are the artist’s “signature dish”. These sculptures exist for a short period of time and are recorded on video or in the form of photographs. For example, a person who becomes part of a sculpture balances in an awkward position and takes complex, unstable poses. This approach could be described as performance sculpture.
In addition, his seemingly inflatable, seemingly “fat-filled” houses, deformed cars and human figures, which are easily read as a criticism of consumer society, are popular. In his works, the artist also ironizes about anti-globalism. Wurm's works are offered at all major auctions in the world, in important galleries and fairs. You can see them in many public collections around the world, in Vienna - in the Belvedere and Albertina galleries.
The heart of the Austrian fine art market
Among the auction houses in Vienna, the largest is the Palais Dorotheum. This is where the heart of the Austrian art market beats. Created in Vienna in 1707, the Dorotheum is today the largest auction house in Central Europe. More than 600 auctions are held here every year. The most important events take place during the four main trading weeks, when works of major movements and periods are sold - from Old Masters to Art Nouveau and contemporary art. Separate specialized auctions are dedicated to less voluminous in terms of turnover, but no less popular areas of collecting, for example postage stamps, books, coins or items of international design. In addition, daily auctions are held, where connoisseurs and amateurs can always find something interesting, especially now, in the summer, when there is a lull in the Dorotheum and you can buy everything you like, often at starting prices. Dorotheum also organizes specialized Russian auctions, which were suspended for some time, but have now been resumed.
In addition to the Dorotheum, auction sales are active in the Kinski Palace, in the Hassfurther Gallery, and, of course, representative offices of Sotheby’s and Christie’s are open.
Yes, Vienna, a city that tastefully combines elegance and imperial grandeur, offers collectors of all sizes a truly exquisite journey back in time, providing the highest class of service along the way.
A. Tikhomirov (fine arts); O. Shvidkovsky, S. Khan-Magomedov (architecture)
The great power policy of the Habsburg Monarchy, largely based on the oppression and exploitation of numerous nationalities that were part of Austria-Hungary, did not withstand the tests of the World War of 1914-1918. The contradictions of a multinational state, which could not be resolved within the framework of a capitalist society, led to the collapse of the “patchwork empire.” Among the states that re-emerged from its ruins next to Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Austria found its new existence in the form of a bourgeois republic, the political and economic prerequisites for the development of which were significantly different from the previous period. In 1938, the occupation of Austria by Nazi Germany began, and only after the defeat of Hitlerism were opportunities created for the revival of Austria's own culture in the conditions of its existence as a neutral bourgeois state.
Late 19th - early 20th century. are associated in Austria with an in-depth search for new ways of developing architecture, which had a great influence on all European architecture and played a significant role in the formation of various creative directions new architecture. During this period, a whole galaxy of talented architects emerged in Austria, whose influence went far beyond the country's borders - Joseph Olbrich (1867-1908), Otto Wagner (1841-1918), Joseph Hoffmann (1870-1956), Adolf Loos (1870-1933 ). The work of each of them had its own individual characteristics, but they all made a significant contribution to the development of modern architecture (the search for new architectural and artistic means, the development of new planning techniques and volumetric-spatial composition of buildings, the introduction of materials such as metal, glass, reinforced concrete into construction ). All these architects, to a greater or lesser extent, experienced the influence of Art Nouveau in their work (associated with the organization of the Secession in 1897), however, Austrian Art Nouveau was distinguished by a certain restraint in the use of decor, which, as a rule, did not claim the main role in creating an external appearance of the building, but was used as a compositional accent (entrance, crown of the building) or ornamental framing of large wall planes. Typical examples are the Secession building in Vienna (1897-1898) and the exhibition building in Darmstadt (1907-1908), built according to the designs of I. Olbrich, Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905-1911, architect J. Hoffmann), Vienna station urban railway(late 1890s, architect O. Wagner).
In 1904-1906. According to the design of O. Wagner, a post office and savings bank building was built in Vienna, in which the layout, floor structures and equipment of the operating room were rationally decided.
One of the most striking pages in the development of Austrian architecture of this period is the work of A. Loos, who acted as a theorist and promoter of functional architecture and a passionate opponent of functionally unjustified architectural forms and decorative decorations. Loos consistently put his views into practice, creating works whose rational layout and simple geometric forms (smooth walls, devoid of decoration) anticipated many features of European functionalism of the 20s. (Steiner's house in Vienna, 1910).
At the Secession exhibitions, a prominent place is also occupied by the paintings of Karl Schuch (1846-1903), an artist who developed largely under the influence of Cezanne back in the 1880-1890s. Shukh worked repeatedly and for a long time outside home country: in Italy, Holland, Belgium, Paris and Munich. Next to his comrades in the Secession, Schuch looks to a greater extent realist; he is always fascinated by nature, the images of which he strives to capture with highly intense, contrasting color relationships. However, Shukha’s pictorial culture did not find a target application due to the lack of connection between the artist’s creativity and the spiritual life of his people.
Characteristic exponents of expressionistic tendencies in Austrian art are Alfred Kubin and Oskar Kokoschka. In his grotesque fantastic sketches and pen drawings, Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) tries to create a kind of apocalyptic “waste” to the dying bourgeois society. Kubin also puts a sense of doom, fear, impending doom, and pessimism into his illustrations for the works of a wide variety of writers. In Prague he meets F. Kafka. Delusional visions and hallucinations are mixed in Kubin's mind with observations of reality. Sometimes in his drawings trees turn into animals, houses into creepy living creatures; He calls his sketches “sketches of dreams.” It seems that the artist lives in an atmosphere of some kind of frightening nightmare, coloring all his life observations. Having studied the works of Bosch and Bruegel for a long time, Kubin at the beginning of his long career was closer to symbolism (the drawing “War”), gradually moving to increasingly intense expressionism. In order to enhance the hypnosis of his phantasmagoria, he deforms what he saw and his visions, willingly depicts the eerie or repulsive. In his “The Old Millwoman” he depicts in detail the courtyard of a neglected mill with fragments of millstones, garbage and a snake crawling towards clumsy toads, which it wants to swallow. covered with some kind of mud. Kubin consciously renounces all “skill”, supposedly for the sake of directly conveying the sincerity of the experience. But, gradually becoming imbued with the images of decay, he himself is to some extent infected with the decay he depicts; he lacks the courage of an exposer; for decades, in seclusion in his provincial house in Zwickledt (northern Austria), Kubin created not only cycles of his fantasies (“Zanzara”, 1911; "The Seven Deadly Sins", 1915; "Wild Beasts", 1920; "Dance of Death", 1925 and 1947; “Demons and Ghosts”, 1926, etc.)” but also illustrated a lot of Edgar Allan Poe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Strindberg, Dostoevsky (“The Double”) - over eighty works of art. In the works of these writers, he first of all sought to see a reflection of the painful spiritual phenomena of contemporary man. He also illustrated his own autobiographical novel, The Other Side (1908). Kubin's work is in some respects close to the art of James Ensor, Munch, and partly Odilon Redon.
The work of the German-Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1959) was also typical of the era. In Kokoschka's pictorial manner, some researchers saw echoes of the influences of the Austrian Baroque (in particular, Maulberch - a moment of fluent improvisation). But, of course, it is primarily associated with the phenomena of Austrian decadence; after 1910 he acts as one of the founders of expressionism. Kokoschka began exhibiting at the Secession in 1897 alongside Klimt and Schiele. The artist at this time was influenced by the teachings of Freud. In the works of this period, for example in portraits, the realistic principle is gradually giving way to the growing sound of subjectivist moments. In “The Dreaming Boy” (1908; private collection) there is a noticeable overlap with the works of Picasso’s “blue” period. Portrait of the psychiatrist A. Forel (1908; Mannheim, Kunsthalle) is one of Kokoschka’s most powerful works, the best portraits of which demonstrate the artist’s ability to penetrate the spiritual world of the person depicted, his mental state. The artist perceives a person as something constantly changing, unsteady, barely perceptible. Kokoschka is often on the verge of detachment from reality; conjectures and dreams introduce moments of visionary, sometimes nightmare, into portraits. Even in the portrait of Forel, the person depicted appears before us as if ghostly, and his sharply captured characteristic real features are visible as if half-erased, dissolved in a flickering environment. Sometimes Kokoschka conveys a more general meaning to his portrait images. This is his painting “St. Veronica" (1912; Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts) with a shroud in her hands, which depicts the bloody face of the tortured Christ.
Kokoschka also wrote a lot of thematic compositions (panel triptych “Thermopylae”, 1954, University of Hamburg; “Bound Columbus”, “Job”, “Emigrants”, 1916-1917, Bolzano, private collection), but they, despite the increased color , are less convincing than portraits. Kokoschka also wrote still lifes, tragic in their worldview (Still Life with a Dead Lamb, 1910; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries). Kokoschka’s landscapes are also unique, almost always with a very high and wide horizon; for the most part they are panoramic in nature (“Louvre Courtyard”, 1929; “Prague, Charles Bridge”, 1934; “Matternhorn”, 1947). Kokoschka traveled a lot, and painted views of European and Asian cities. These were like colorful panoramic portraits of the cities in which he lived. But this stream of color characteristics in their rapid fluency does not give the Viewer a stable image.
Kokoschka's work reflected the breakdowns and illnesses of the difficult era of his homeland. After him, Austrian art no longer singled out phenomena of the same strong sound.
Quite pale rehashes of Cézanneism continued to appear in Austrian art. There is almost no continuation in it of those trends of “new thingness” that in the 20-30s. were associated with the work of the Lake Constance artist Rudolf Wacker (1893-1939), who, in addition to characteristic landscapes, painted many still lifes. Wacker loved to compose his still lifes from bizarre items of laboratory equipment, drugs, toys, objects invented and created by man, different from natural things or lived-in household items.
Conditions public life Austria in the 20th century. determined the instability and complexity of phenomena visual arts, often the simultaneous existence of various contradictory individual quests or even entire directions. The above-mentioned, to a certain extent, most characteristic phenomena do not exhaust the entire diversity of fine art in Austria in the period described. In the Tyrolean motifs of A. Egger-Linz (1868-1926), sometimes, despite the stylization, progressive folk aspects were also heard. At the same time, Klimt's decadent pretentiousness had adherents in the person of Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Decisive general direction cannot be found in Austrian art of recent decades; There is a noticeable movement towards surrealism and abstractionism, not only in painting (E. Fuchs), but also in sculpture (F. Votruba, b. 1907). In the work of the latter, the material (stone), the dense weight of which he tries to reveal first of all, obscures and deadens the vital subject of the image. Votruba goes towards abstraction. Professor of the Vienna Academy Herbert Böckl (b. 1894), who initially worked in the spirit of the expressionism of Kokoschka and Schiele, evolves towards more abstract painting; he, however, painted wall paintings on religious themes (in Maria Saal, Carinthia, 1920s, and in Seckau, 1954-1955). But for Böckl, content is only a pretext for spatial, volumetric and coloristic designs. His easel compositions are also successful in Austria.
Austrian art of the post-war years is still in search of its path and originality.
Formed in 1919 after the collapse of the patchwork Austria-Hungary, the Austrian state, relatively small in population and territory, received as its capital a city of almost two million, which was created as the capital of the vast Habsburg empire. Therefore, construction in Austria during the period under review was mainly associated with Vienna, where more than a quarter of the country’s total population lived.
In Vienna there was an acute housing crisis, which became increasingly socially dangerous for the ruling classes. The Social Democratic majority of the Vienna municipality, elected by the votes of the workers, in an effort to consolidate their successes in the next elections, introduced a targeted tax and began the construction of housing for workers. It was a broadly conceived social reformist plan, which aimed to prove the possibility of radically improving the material conditions of life of workers within bourgeois society by reformist methods. However, recognizing the social-demagogic essence of Viennese municipal construction of the 20s - early 30s, one cannot help but take into account that for the “effectiveness” of their experiment, the Social Democrats were forced to take into account the social and everyday needs of workers and employees when building new residential complexes , settled in these houses.
For the social characterization of Viennese municipal construction, Lenin’s words are well suited that “only in cities with a large percentage of the proletarian population is it possible to defend for the working people some of the crumbs of municipal government”( V. I. Lenin, Works, vol. 16, p. 339.).
Viennese municipal construction largely determined the entire creative direction of Austrian architecture in the 20s and early 30s. Construction was carried out on vacant plots, which made it possible to create relatively large residential complexes. A certain norm for building density was established (no more than 50 percent), requirements were developed for residential apartment projects (mandatory direct lighting of all rooms, optimal orientation to the cardinal points, etc.). The most interesting thing in the experience of Viennese municipal construction is the desire to organize public utility services for residents (the Sandleiten, Engelshof, Karl-Marxhof complexes, etc.). The complexes provided playgrounds for children, swimming pools, built kindergartens and nurseries, special consultations for mothers, libraries - reading rooms for young people, medical aid stations, public laundries, and baths.
As for such problems of housing construction (on which architects of a number of other European countries), such as the rational layout of the complex, the use of modern building materials and structures, the use of achievements of applied sciences when designing an apartment, etc., then in these matters the achievements of Austrian architects were very modest. Socially interesting Viennese residential complexes were largely conservative in urban planning (separate plots not connected to each other in the overall structure of the city; perimeter development), as well as in the layout and equipment of apartments. The houses were built mainly of brick, and their appearance in many complexes was archaic: a distinctly symmetrical composition, rustications, arches, decorative sculpture (for example, the Karl-Marxhoff complex, 1927 -1929, architect K. En).
A certain social orientation of Viennese residential complexes, on the one hand, and a seemingly strange desire for emphasized pomp in their appearance, on the other, clearly reflected the contradictory goals of all this noisily advertised construction. Ultimately, for the Social Democratic leadership of the Vienna municipality, meeting the housing needs of workers was not so much a goal as a means of promoting their social reformist doctrine.
General big job on the design and construction of residential complexes, in which many Austrian architects took part, during this period relegated to the background the struggle of various creative directions, which was very acute in the pre-war years. This is largely due to the fact that in the 20s - early 30s. In the work of Austrian architects, the emphasis in creative searches has changed significantly. The main thing was no longer in stylistic differences or even in functional and constructive techniques and means, but in the search for a new social approach to creating a residential complex for workers. And the Viennese municipal construction, for all the limitations of its goals, had certain achievements precisely in social issues.
The significance of Viennese complexes in housing construction in capitalist countries lies not in their mass character, but in the fact that in this construction, as a result of the influence of specific historical conditions (social transformations in the USSR, revolutionary upsurge in a number of European countries, the struggle for the votes of working-class voters, etc.) d.) architectural solutions to a certain extent took into account the real everyday and social needs of the working class (clubs, nurseries, etc.). It is no coincidence that after the reactionary coup in Austria carried out in 1934 by Dollfuss and accompanied by the destruction of workers' organizations, all clubs in workers' complexes were closed.
After the reactionary coup and especially after the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938), many progressive architects were forced to emigrate from the country. In Austrian architecture, the desire for pomp is increasingly beginning to prevail.
After the liquidation of the Nazi dictatorship and the revival of national independence in Austria, a certain democratization of public life and culture has occurred since 1945. Once again, as after the war of 1914-1918, the question of eliminating the acute housing need caused by significant war destruction arises with all force. As in a number of other European countries, the state was forced to allocate certain funds (mainly in the form of loans) for so-called “social” (cheap) housing construction. New residential complexes, unlike pre-war ones, are built taking into account modern urban planning principles - open plan, mixed development. In this respect, the post-war residential complexes are a step forward in the development of Austrian architecture.
Among the residential complexes built in Vienna in the post-war period, two can be distinguished, created according to the design of the architect F. Schuster. One of these complexes (Per-Albin-Hanson, 1949-1953) consists of two-story blocked houses with plots, two schools, a nursery, a club, a clinic, a library and shopping center; the second (on Siemenstrasse, 1950-1954) was conceived as experimental - with the aim of testing various methods of planning a residential area and certain types of houses (single-family, semi-detached, multi-apartment).
When designing new residential complexes, architects are paying increasing attention to aesthetic searches, for example, experimenting in the use of color to enhance artistic expression both individual houses and residential complexes as a whole.
rice. on page 210.
In the field of construction of public buildings, Austrian architects have made significant progress in designing schools, children's institutions, swimming pools, etc. Austrian architects also contributed to the development of sports and entertainment buildings with a universal transforming hall. One of the outstanding buildings of this type is the Stadthalle (city hall) in Vienna, built according to the design of the architect R. Rainer and engineer F. Baravalle, selected as a result of an international competition, in 1954-1958. The architect was faced with the task of creating a building that would combine the functions of a stadium and a meeting hall. The three small halls of the Stadthalle are designed for specific sports (gymnastics, ball games, figure skating). The fourth hall - the main one - measuring 100 x 100 m (along the axes), accommodating 16 thousand people, is equipped with special devices for quickly converting it into a hall for athletics competitions, a skating rink, concert hall, cycling track, exhibition hall, circus arena, premises for festivals and public meetings. Using a system of movable partitions about the total volume of the hall, which has the shape of an elongated octagon in plan, it is possible to separate rooms of different cubic sizes. The appearance of the building in which the main hall is located is also not entirely ordinary. Its volumetric composition reveals the spatial structure of the interior, covered without supports with metal trusses supported by steel frame frames and inclined reinforced concrete structures of stands for spectators. The Stadthalle complex, which also includes open-air sports grounds (a football field), has become the compositional center of the densely built-up residential areas surrounding it and successfully fits into the green area of the adjacent city park.
IN post-war years Significant construction took place in Linz, which was rapidly growing on the basis of industrial development.
The name of the famous Austrian artist, graphic artist and book illustrator Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is inextricably linked with the Art Nouveau style, and his paintings are its most striking manifestation. Klimt was one of the most interesting and sought-after representatives of world fine art. He never sought to demonstrate his exclusivity to the public. He worked quietly, calmly, did only what he considered necessary, and, meanwhile, there were not many masters in the world who were so kindly received by the public, showered with orders and did not experience financial difficulties. This is one of Klimt's mysteries. Klimt was born into the family of an engraver and jeweler near Vienna. The father could not achieve wealth through his craft. The family will emerge from poverty only after Gustav, having graduated from the School of Decorative Arts, together with his brother Ernst and friend Franz Match, creates a company to carry out artistic and decorative work. For several years, while the company existed, Klimt gained fame as the best decorative painter in Austria. However, the artist was not satisfied with himself and his style. There was still more to come. The first features of his unique style appeared for the first time in the paintings of the grand staircase Vienna Museum history of art created in 1890-1891. In 1897, Klimt headed the Secession, an association of artists created in opposition to official art. In 1900, he began work offered by the University of Vienna, and presented the painting of one of the lampshades - “Philosophy”. It was then that a scandal broke out. On this lampshade, and then on the next ones - “Medicine” and “Jurisprudence” - the artist violated all the laws of color and composition, combining the incongruous. In his panels, man appears as a slave to his nature, obsessed with pain, sex and death. This Klimt both shocked and fascinated. But the scandal ended with the artist, having borrowed money, returning the advance to the university and keeping the works for himself. There were so many orders that this allowed him to quickly repay the debt and not think about money at all in the future. 
The “golden” period in Klimt’s work began. He's writing great amount paintings that, once you look at, you will never forget. Does he paint naked, openly sensual bodies (“Girlfriends”, “Adam and Eve”) or the tension of feelings between two lovers (“Love”, “Kiss”, “Intoxication”), or commissioned portraits of women (portraits of Sonya Knieps, Fritz Ridler, Adele Bloch-Bauer, Eugenia and Meda Primavesi, Frederica Maria Bier) - in any case, a personal vision of the world around us and the person in it is manifested. And it's fascinating. Here, for example, . On a raised platform (platform? hill?), strewn with flowers, against a background of darkened gold, two young lovers are depicted, united in a kiss. In the picture, only the face of the girl and the head of the young man, the hands of hugging young people and the girl’s leg, hanging as if over an abyss, are drawn. But most importantly, both figures are hidden by decorative clothes decorated with spirals, ovals, circles and others geometric shapes, so you won’t immediately be able to discern the figures hidden underneath them. The same manner is typical for portraits of real women. There are many of them, Klimt's women. Charming faces, hairstyles, hands, jewelry, but dresses and backgrounds, like in a magical kaleidoscope, turn into a unique fairy-tale decoration. This is exactly how he saw man, his beauty, weaknesses, fears and passions. And where this was not the case, nature remained. The artist painted landscapes for himself. So he rested. Maybe that's why critics ignored them for a long time. Today his landscape paintings are recognized the best part his creativity. “Blossoming Garden”, “Country Garden with Sunflowers”, “After the Rain”, “Meadow with Poppies”, “ Birch Grove"almost realistic. Almost, because a touch of decorativeness is present in them too, making the landscapes light, ghostly, airy. Perhaps this is another side of the artist’s personality: simplicity, calmness and lightness, which a person with his passions so lacks.