mumok

Another museum which I hadn't experienced on previous visits to Vienna but was determined to see on this trip was the huge, imposing black, basalt stone edifice that sits in a corner of Vienna's Museum Quarter - mumok. Mumok (museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien) is, it claims, Europe's "largest museum space for modern art". The strikingly modern building designed by architects Ortner & Ortner was opened in 2001, and houses mumok's collection of 10,000 pieces of modern and contemporary art and design made up largely from a series of donated private collections, most notably that of collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig.

As befitting the impressively modern design of the exterior, mumok's current display of art culled from its permanent collections - Reading Time in Space. Modernism at mumok 1910-1955, is displayed in a very modern way. There were lots of slotted partitions dividing the space on which the paintings were hung. It was certainly different to the way in which many other museums display artworks, and whilst experimental and playful, I personally found it a little distracting, and thought it took away the sense of gravitas of certain works. Below are some of the things I found interesting from this current display of mumok's permanent collection of art and design. I would really have liked to see more space given over to displays of the permanent collection as it contains many gems which weren't on display. I visited the other galleries featuring temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, photography and video installation on the other floors of mumok but wasn't suffiently impressed by them to record them here.

Theo von Doesburg - Komposition 8, 1919

Hans Arp - Portfolio of Serigraphs and one collage 1959, Croix, 1917, Constellation, 1932

Josef Hoffman - Chair/Table, 1905

Wiener Werkstätte - Glass and flatware, c. early 20th C.

Joan Miró - Spanish Dancer tapestry rug, c.1965 & Gerrit Reitveld - Red Blue chair, 1917

Meret Oppenheim - Traccia table, 1939 & Man Ray - Daring Gift, 1921/1974

Fernand Léger - Nature morte aux fruits, 1927

František Kupka - Nocturne, 1910-11

Egon Schiele - Small Tree in late Autumn, 1911

Otto Freundlich - Forces, 1934

Piet Mondrian - Composition with Double Line and Blue (unfinished), 1935

Oskar Schlemmer - Group of Three with One Nude Seen From the Back, 1929

Max Ernst - Aus der Mappe/From the Portfolio: Fiat Modes Pereat Ars, 1919

Robert Delauney - White Relief, 1936

László Moholy-Nagy - Komposition Q V III, 1922

Victor Servranckx - Painting Opus 45, 1923

Michail Larionov - Figurine for the Ballet "Le Marche Funèbre... 1919

Pablo Picasso - Seated Woman with Green Scarf, 1960

René Magritte - The Voice of Blood, 1959

mumok
museum moderner kunst stiftung ludwig wien
Museumsplatz 1, 
A-1070 
Wien

Aeolus: String Theories

Aeolus VI, detail

Barbara Hepworth - Winged Figure, 1963

I usually pass Barbara Hepworth's Winged Figure sculpture attached to the facade of the John Lewis department store at Oxford Circus on a weekly basis. I really admire the combination of its form pierced by holes, and the tension created by the metallic strings delicately criss-crossing the piece casting web-like shadows. Winged Figure inspired me to revisit Chiharu Shiota's contemporary string/thread installation work staged last year (here), and I wondered to what extent Shiota and other artists specialising in the medium of string/thread were inspired by Marcel Duchamp's iconic, mischievous installation Sixteen Miles of String at the First Papers of Surrealism exhibition in 1942. Visitors to the exhibition had to negotiate their way through the tangled mass of string in order to view the artworks, which must have been really amusing to watch.

Marcel Duchamp - Sixteen Miles of String, 1942

I then began to look further at other pieces of midcentury sculpture and furniture design which employ string to emphasise and enhance their forms. I came across further lovely examples by Hepworth, Henry Moore, and Naum Gabo. Of the three, Gabo was perhaps the first to use string in his sculptural works. Having initially studied medicine, he would have been aware of, and influenced by the complex mathematical models created using string such as those in the picture below. Henry Moore who began making stringed pieces in 1937 may well have been influenced by seeing Gabo's stringed work after Gabo moved to Britain in 1936. Moore, however cited similar mathematical models he found in the Science Museum as the direct source of his inspiration. It wasn't so much the science aspect of the models that inspired him, but rather the ability to see forms within forms through the strings.

Mathematical models
 

 Barbara Hepworth - Oval Form with Strings, 1966

  Barbara Hepworth - Disc with Strings, Sun, 1969

 Henry Moore - Stringed Figure, 1938

Henry Moore - Stringed Form, 1938

 Naum Gabo - Linear Construction No.1, 1942

Jørgen Høvelskov - Harp Chair, 1968

 

 Jørgen Høvelskov - Harp Chair, 1968 (detail)

To my eyes these sculptures all resemble musical instruments in some way, with their combinations of holes and strings within a stylised form. They evoke images of aeolian harps just waiting for the breeze of Aeolus, the god of wind in ancient Greek mythology to pluck their strings, coaxing sweet, ethereal music out of them. Danish designer Jørgen Høvelskov's Harp Chair is a wonderfully sculptural piece of midcentury furniture with obvious musical connotations that also utilises string as an integral part of its elegant design. These sculptural stringed forms, and the myth of the god of wind have provided the inspiration and title behind Aeolus, a new series of stitched works of mine. Like the stringed works of Gabo, Hepworth and Moore, they too are based on geometric and mathematical models. Each has a stitched, retro-patterned, framework with a central void filled with a mix of my delicate, hand-cut, metal leaf butterflies blowin' in the wind. They are the most complex stitched pieces that I have created so far, and have certainly taxed my sewing skills to the limit. There are ten different designs in the series so far, and each design is available in a gold, silver, copper leaf/gold, silver, copper thread combination. Each piece measures 50cm x 50cm and comes supplied in a white painted ash box frame. The Aeolus series are available exclusively directly from myself, or can be commissioned from Cambridge Contemporary Art, and The Rowley Gallery.

 Aeolus I, (silver-leaf)

  Aeolus II, (detail)

 Aeolus III, (detail)

 Aeolus IV, (detail)

  Aeolus VI

   Aeolus VII, (detail)

Aeolus VIII



#20/20Vision

MAK

MAK (Museum für angewandte Kunst/Museum of Applied Arts) is Austria's equivalent of (and actually modelled on), our very own Victoria and Albert Museum. It specialises in designs of the Wiener Werkstätte which was a pioneering workshop based in Vienna creating a range of product designs by leading artists, architects and designers at the beginning of the twentieth century. MAK museum is a really beautiful building constructed in 1871 based on Italian Renaissance designs. The museum's vast collections encompass everything from Rococo lace and Baroque glass, to early European and Asian porcelain, with strong collections of Biedermeier and Thonet furniture to boot, with strong collections of early graphic design and japanese woodcuts thrown in for good measure. On this occasion though, it was the galleries housing the collection of Viennese objects of art, craft and design from 1890-1938 that I was most interested in seeing. 

The lovely Renaissance-inspired exterior of the museum with bands of classical friezes.

The wonderful interiors are even more impressive than the exterior facade. On entering the atrium the eyes are immediately drawn skywards to appreciate the airy, vaulted ceilings painted with a series of decorative grotesques supported by a host of marble columns. The atmosphere felt more akin to being in a cathedral rather than a purpose-built museum of design.  

MAK's entrance hall.

Ceiling decoration.

I made my way up to the first floor and found the galleries containing the collection of Viennese work from 1900. Here I found what must be the crowning glory of the collection, Gustav Klimt's iconic cartoon studies for The Stoclet Frieze. The mosaic frieze was commissioned for the dining room of the Palais Stoclet a Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) house in Brussels designed for the industrialist Adolphe Stoclet by members of the Wiener Werkstätte. These designs and the resultant mosaics are acknowledged as being some of Klimt's most important work. They encompass many of his signature themes such as love, the power of nature, and womanhood, and they are just marvels of decorative design using gold, silver, and platinum leaf. The tree at the centre of the design and its golden swirling branches has a truly hypnotic effect. The whole design is just magnificent!

Gustav Klimt - The Stoclet Frieze, 1905-1911

Another real beauty in this gallery just beside and complementing Klimt's Stoclet Frieze is Mary Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh's The Seven Princesses. It is a large gesso and gypsum panel inlaid with glass fragments and mother-of-pearl, and is another treasure to be found in MAK's collection. It is completely mesmerising with its sinuous lines, curves and narrow, minimal colour palette.

Mary Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh - The Seven Princesses, 1906

Carl Otto Czeschka - Panneau Diana, 1911

The stylish carved wood panel of the huntress Diana enhanced with gold leaf detailing above,  also caught my eye. I was more than impressed with the talents of the Wiener Werkstätte artists who not content with being merely painters, were also talented enough to turn their hands to graphic, textile and furniture design.

Dagobert Peche - Salon Cabinet, 1913

Koloman Moser - Secretaire for Berta Waerndorfer, 1903

Koloman Moser - Jewelry Box, 1906

Wiener Werkstätte glassware

Koloman Moser - Seccession exhibition poster, 1899

I enjoyed the Art Nouveau-era poster above, and felt it juxtaposed and segued nicely into another exhibition in a different gallery also on the first floor. 100 Best Posters 18 GermanyAustriaSweden featured what was deemed the hundred best modern European  poster designs as selected by an international jury. There were some excellent combinations of type and image on display here, and I really liked the ones which appropriated the designs of the Heinz and Aldi brands.

I had a quick look into the exhibition - Bentwood & Beyond: Thonet & Modern Furniture, about the history and influence of the iconic Thonet bentwood chairs, but found it too crowded with noisy sixth-form groups so didn't linger here for very long. Instead I headed downstairs to the the lower floor galleries where I found the MAK Design Lab. Here I discovered lots of examples of cutting edge and experimental contemporary design across all disciplines and also more examples of delicate Wiener Werkstätte glassware. There was also a very interesting exhibition entitled Kuniyoshi + Ukiyoenow, of MAK's large holdings of traditional Japanese woodcut prints contrasted with modern exponents of the medium such as Andrew Archer. Archer combines his admiration of the traditional woodcut technique with his love of basketball, and Masumi Ishikawa who incorporates modern pop culture icons into his prints which made for some great images and an updating of this classic print medium.

Bertjan Pot - Mask, 2017

Josef Hoffman glassware
 

 Utagawa Kuniyoshi - The Noble Lady Tokiwa, ca.1842

 

Masumi Ishikawa - David Bowie Shapeshifting Comparison "Kidomaru" (Aladdin Sane), 2018

Andrew Archer - James Garden Bonsai Harden, 2018

MAK
Museum für angewandte Kunst/Museum of Applied Arts
Stubenring 5
1010 Wein
Austria