LEOPOLD MUSEUM: ULTIMATIVE ADDITION TO CHRISTMAS WISHLIST FOR FANS OF VIENNA 1900

02.12.2019

Luxury Volume VIENNA 1900. BIRTH OF MODERNISM Released!

The eagerly awaited catalogue accompanying the spectacular new presentation of the Leopold Museum’s “Vienna 1900 Collection” is available as of now. The impressive compendium, edited by the Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger, affords the most comprehensive insights to date into the fascinating era of Viennese Modernism. Comprising 560 pages and exceeding 1,000 illustrations, the volume is an absolute must-have for enthusiasts of early 20th-century art, culture and intellectual history. Based on the approximately 1,300 exhibits featured in the permanent presentation Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism, and supplemented by important comparative examples, the magnum opus is the ultimate guide through the intellectual melting pot that was Vienna on the threshold to the 20th century.

The publication features 13 essays by renowned experts, and provides an overview of the most eminent personalities of Viennese Modernism. Conveying a real sense of the complexity and diversity of the pioneering artistic and scientific achievements around 1900, it affords “singular insights into the atmosphere of the former capital of world culture Vienna”, as Hans-Peter Wipplinger put it.

Hans-Peter Wipplinger’s condensed and stimulating introduction is followed by an essay about the evolution of the collection written by the author and curator Diethard Leopold, son of the museum founder Rudolf Leopold. The thinker, “artist without an oeuvre” and art theorist Bazon Brock shines the spotlight on the importance, achievements and after-effects of Viennese Modernism. The philosopher Burghart Schmidt explores the radical changes in science, research and intellectual life of the time, while his fellow philosopher Allan Janik affords insights into the multi-layered fin-de-siècle society. August Ruhs, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, expounds on the progress made in emancipation, psychoanalysis and medicine. The literary scholar and author Stefan Kutzenberger analyzes the emphases of literature in Vienna around 1900. Ernst Ploil, a lawyer, collector and expert on Jugendstil and the Wiener Werkstätte, highlights the importance of arts and crafts for the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or universal work of art. Leopold Museum curator Ivan Ristić elucidates the advancements in architecture in Vienna around 1900, while the art historian Thomas Zaunschirm looks at the significance of sculpture during this time. Schönberg expert Therese Muxeneder, a lecturer at the Vienna University of Music and archivist of the Schönberg Center, gives an introduction into the revolutionary changes in modern music, while the theater scholar Monika Meister trains the spotlight on the theater of Viennese Modernism based on Kokoschka’s scandalous play Murderer, the Hope of Women. Finally, the dramaturg and dance historian Andrea Amort has dedicated her essay to the liberated body in modern dance around 1900.

The essays:

Hans-Peter Wipplinger: Prologue I Diethard Leopold: The Collection is the Body of the Collector. From an Artists’ Collection to an Epoch’s Collection I Bazon Brock: Vienna around 1900. A Reversal of Perspectives I Burghart Schmidt: The Shifts in Science and Philosophy and their Influence on Developments in the Arts I Allan Janik: Culture and Society in Vienna around 1900. A Schematic Overview I August Ruhs: Nervous Times. Something of What Preceded the Culture of the Fin-de-Siècle and Viennese Modernism I Stefan Kutzenberger: Triumphant Sadness. Literature in Vienna around 1900 I Ernst Ploil: Arts and Crafts Objects as Contributions to the Gesamtkunstwerk I Ivan Ristić: Facades of Modernism. Notes on Viennese Buildings around 1900 I Thomas Zaunschirm: Sculpture in Vienna around 1900 I Therese Muxeneder: Finite Romanticism and the Emancipation of Dissonance. New Tones in Vienna around 1900 I Monika Meister: Theater in Viennese Modernism. Oskar Kokoschka’s Drama “Murderer, the Hope of Women” I Andrea Amort: The Dancing Body becomes Visible
Additional chapter introductions are dedicated to further aspects, including poster art, the Cabaret Fledermaus, the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, fashion and the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, thus completing the multi-faceted picture of this fruitful period of Viennese art and cultural history.

The catalogue accompanying the new permanent presentation Vienna 1900 at the Leopold Museum:

VIENNA 1900. BIRTH OF MODERNISM
Editor: Hans-Peter Wipplinger I Authors: Andrea Amort, Bazon Brock, Heike Eipeldauer, Verena Gamper, Allan Janik, Stefan Kutzenberger, Diethard Leopold, Monika Meister, Therese Muxeneder, Ernst Ploil, Burghart Schmidt, Ivan Ristić, August Ruhs, Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Thomas Zaunschirm I Binding: Hardcover I Pages: 560 I Illustrations: c. 1,300 I Languages: German and English in separate editions I Publishers: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König I Sales price: EUR 49.90

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