Posts tagged wien museum

Klimt Kitsch

For those of you who want to follow up on the Klimt Kitsch competition being run by the Wien Museum as part of their upcoming exhibition, there is now a facebook picture gallery on their fanpage. Enjoy!

As part of their upcoming exhibition about the works of Gustav Klimt held in their collections, the Wien Museum (Vienna City Museum) has launched a competition on Facebook asking people to submit the worst of the Klimt kitsch. For those of you who haven’t been to Vienna: owing to the fame and popular appeal of Klimt’s works (especially The Kiss, 1907-8), tourist gift shops the city over are filled with every imaginable souvenir genre featuring the painting or interpretations of it. And from what I remember, the gift shop at the Wien Museum itself is no exception, even if a more tame example.  But the idea of the museum addressing not just the artworks themselves, but also their fame and the way that they have been repurposed sounds like an interesting approach for the museum to take, especially as it is not a conventional art gallery, but a city history museum. I think it is also interesting how the gold and bombast of Klimt’s works is deemed more palatable and lends itself to these uses than the works of the Egon Schiele - a contemporary of Klimt’s - despite both being controversial in their time. 

As part of their upcoming exhibition about the works of Gustav Klimt held in their collections, the Wien Museum (Vienna City Museum) has launched a competition on Facebook asking people to submit the worst of the Klimt kitsch. For those of you who haven’t been to Vienna: owing to the fame and popular appeal of Klimt’s works (especially The Kiss, 1907-8), tourist gift shops the city over are filled with every imaginable souvenir genre featuring the painting or interpretations of it. And from what I remember, the gift shop at the Wien Museum itself is no exception, even if a more tame example. 

But the idea of the museum addressing not just the artworks themselves, but also their fame and the way that they have been repurposed sounds like an interesting approach for the museum to take, especially as it is not a conventional art gallery, but a city history museum. I think it is also interesting how the gold and bombast of Klimt’s works is deemed more palatable and lends itself to these uses than the works of the Egon Schiele - a contemporary of Klimt’s - despite both being controversial in their time. 

Soliman Exhibition at the Wien Museum, Vienna

I finally made it to the Angelo Soliman exhibition today at the Vienna City Museum. I was right to be excited. The exhibition is the closest I’ve ever seen in Austria to my ideal of what museums are and what they should do. 

Angelo Soliman

By way of background, Angelo Soliman (c.1721 - 1796) was an African (exact details of his early life are unknown beyond that) who came to Europe as an enslaved child. After reaching pubescence the “Coffee Moors” - as young African boys who served in aristocratic houses were called - were often left to a life of destitution. Angelo Soliman became a soldier and eventually reached Vienna, where he served in the house of Liechtenstein, receiving a wage. After secretly marrying and contravening the rules for servants in the home, he went on to live with his life and daughter, becoming a prominent member of Viennese Society and a Freemason, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Mozart (the exhibition has proof of their meeting in the form of a guestbook for a Lodge that shows they attended at least one meeting together). However, after his death his body was desecrated by the director of the Emperor’s private museum, who removed his skin and displayed him wearing feathers, disregarding his life and achievements and making him an exotic specimen. Despite his daughter Josephine’s protests, his remains were displayed until destroyed by fire in the October Revolution of 1848. 

However, the exhibition is not a simple retelling of his life. Instead, the curators have used Soliman as the focal point in describing the depiction of Africans in Austria and how they have been perceived over time. Beginning with how Europeans thought of Africa in the Middle Ages and leading right through to the present day treatment of immigrants and people of African descent. Paintings from the 18th and 19th centuries are thoughtfully displayed alongside information about the life of the African children depicted, whose names have been lost to history, rather than the illustrious people the portraits are meant to glorify. The slave shackles could have been better used as a way to bring in how many enslaved Africans were mistreated, even after their initial capture and to balance the paintings, were the children are shown well-dressed and healthy looking. 

Disappointingly, the articles on loan from the Ethnographic Museum to show the likely place of Soliman’s birth and West African material culture at the time, were in their own enclave, separate from all the otherwise European objects, and serving to reinforce a sense of ‘otherness’. 

The most exciting thing about this exhibition was the was that the themes of racism, prejudice and the treatment of people of African descent are continued post 1800. In Austria still, chocolate cake with whipped cream is called “Mohr im Hemd” (Moor in a shirt) and it’s not uncommon to find paprika based dishes described as “Zigeuner” (Gypsy). The exhibition draws attention to some of these everyday references, as well as cases of great injustice against the African community, including police brutality in the 1990s. Also interesting were the details of various projects that have sought to reexamine history and expland the established narrative of ‘Vienna’s history’. 

The exhibition finishes with a multimedia installation. Visitors can listen to the reactions of people of African descent in Vienna - both immigrants and born-and-bred Viennese - to Soliman’s story and to questions such as “is Vienna today an open society?”. Their answers are honest and insightful. They also echoed some of my own experiences of being non-Austrian in Vienna, particularly the change that takes place during elections. As soon as the posters for the further Right parties (looking at you, FPÖ and BZÖ) go up, people are suddenly much more willing to call you out on public transport for speaking a language other than German, or embarrass themselves by conspiratively passing a comment about others nearby, not realising they have picked altogether the wrong audience. 

The Soliman exhibition is so exciting, not only because of the subject and specific themes it has chosen to address, but because it shows an exciting direction I hope other Austrian museum will follow about the role of the museum in society. 

Angelo Soliman: An African in Vienna The latest temporary exhibition at the Vienna City Museum addresses the life of Angelo Soliman, former child slave, chamberlain, freemason and acquaintance of Mozart, tutor to the prince’s children and whose body after his death was stuffed and displayed in the Natural history museum as a “half-naked savage”, decorated with ostrich feathers and shells.  I haven’t yet seen the exhibition, but I have good reason to be excited. The Vienna City Museum has had temporary exhibitions before that deal with the immigrant presence in Vienna (for example: Gastarbejteri), but the permanent exhibition has at last count (roughly 4 months ago) one depiction of an African person in full feather regalia from an ‘exotic goods’ shop sign which also features the only appearance of an Asian person, representation of the significant Turkish community on Vienna is limited to paintings of the antagonists of the Battle of Vienna 1683 alongside instruments of battle and siege - a major disservice to the 70, 445 people of Turkish descent in this city - Jewish people are only mentioned in relation to their persecution (pre-Holocaust, the permanent exhibition stops around the outbreak of WWI with Klimt and Schiele) and are neither depicted nor objects displayed to demonstrate their presence… the list goes on.  Whilst this is again a temporary exhibition, the museum is currently in the process of redesigning the permanent exhibition and I sincerely hope that the research and reaction to the Soliman exhibition and Gastarbejteri will become permanent elements. Also exciting about the new exhibition is the challenging special events that are taking place as part of the events programme (pdf). My calendar is already marked with events ranging from museological discussion of the ethics of displaying human remains, to tours of the city highlighting the African presence in Vienna over centuries, and discussions about the changing attitudes towards the African community held together with African groups. And I intend to go and take part in lots of these events, so expect to be hearing more about this exhibition and the accompanying programme in the future!

Angelo Soliman: An African in Vienna

The latest temporary exhibition at the Vienna City Museum addresses the life of Angelo Soliman, former child slave, chamberlain, freemason and acquaintance of Mozart, tutor to the prince’s children and whose body after his death was stuffed and displayed in the Natural history museum as a “half-naked savage”, decorated with ostrich feathers and shells. 

I haven’t yet seen the exhibition, but I have good reason to be excited. The Vienna City Museum has had temporary exhibitions before that deal with the immigrant presence in Vienna (for example: Gastarbejteri), but the permanent exhibition has at last count (roughly 4 months ago) one depiction of an African person in full feather regalia from an ‘exotic goods’ shop sign which also features the only appearance of an Asian person, representation of the significant Turkish community on Vienna is limited to paintings of the antagonists of the Battle of Vienna 1683 alongside instruments of battle and siege - a major disservice to the 70, 445 people of Turkish descent in this city - Jewish people are only mentioned in relation to their persecution (pre-Holocaust, the permanent exhibition stops around the outbreak of WWI with Klimt and Schiele) and are neither depicted nor objects displayed to demonstrate their presence… the list goes on. 

Whilst this is again a temporary exhibition, the museum is currently in the process of redesigning the permanent exhibition and I sincerely hope that the research and reaction to the Soliman exhibition and Gastarbejteri will become permanent elements. Also exciting about the new exhibition is the challenging special events that are taking place as part of the events programme (pdf). My calendar is already marked with events ranging from museological discussion of the ethics of displaying human remains, to tours of the city highlighting the African presence in Vienna over centuries, and discussions about the changing attitudes towards the African community held together with African groups. And I intend to go and take part in lots of these events, so expect to be hearing more about this exhibition and the accompanying programme in the future!

The Wien Museum Director gives his “personal take” on the city he’s spent his life interpreting

In a recent interview with Director Wolfgang Kos in the Wien Museum – the museum of the history of the City of Vienna – one couldn’t help being curious about his personal take on the city he spends his life trying to interpret. A man who knows the city so well must have some favourite Vienna things.