Birgit Jürgenssen
in ‘The Beginning. Art in Austria, 1945 to 1980’, Albertina Modern Museum, Vienna
27 May – 8 November 2020
Birgit Jürgenssen, Mit der Bahn heute in eine bessere Zukunft (Taking the Train Today to a Better Future), 1973. Courtesy: © Estate Birgit Jürgenssen, Vienna
The opening exhibition of ALBERTINA MODERN, entitled The Beginning. Art in Austria, 1945 to 1980, offers the first-ever comprehensive overview of a period that numbers among Austrian art history’s most innovative. On exhibit are the most important artistic stances situated at the threshold of postmodernism—from the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism to early abstraction, Viennese Actionism, kinetic and concrete art, Austria’s own version of pop art, and the socially critical realism so characteristic of Vienna. The Beginning accords the towering, singular figures of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Arnulf Rainer, and Maria Lassnig their own separate rooms. And just what sculpture and object art were capable of during this period becomes clear in masterpieces by artists ranging from Joannis Avramidis and Rudolf Hoflehner to Wander Bertoni and Roland Goeschl and on to Curt Stenvert, Bruno Gironcoli, and Cornelius Kolig.