Japan – Fragility of Existence
Masterpieces from the Genzō Hattori Collection
28 09 2012  to 18 02 2013

Through films like Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ traditional Japanese art reached a wider audience. And of course, the film’s theme has a lot to do with the fragility of existence, which is quite important to Japanese culture.

The exhibition in the ‘Leopold Museum’ presents around 50 masterful and previously unseen examples of traditional Japanese ink painting (Sumi-e) and calligraphy (Shodō) from the ‘Genzō Hattori Collection’. It covers works from the 12th to the 20th century. The exhibition is complemented by Japanese colour woodcuts from the ‘Leopold Collection II’.

Leopold Museum at the MuseumsQuartier
Museumsplatz 1
1070 Wien

MARTIN SCORSESE
10th January to 12th May 2013
Deutsche Kinemathek. Museum für Film und Fernsehen

Admittedly this exhibition does not take place in Vienna, but to legendary Martin Scorsese one can make an exception. The American filmmaker opened for the ‘German Cinematheque’ in Berlin his archives. The first ever exhibition on Scorsese includes video installations, original objects, script excerpts and original costumes from his movies and private life.

‘AT YOUR SERVICE – ART AND THE WORKING WORLD’
23 03 2012 – 03 03 2013

This exhibition forms together with ‘Work in progress’ the annual focus of the Technical Museum.

The artistic interventions are not presented in separated rooms, but are integrated into the existing permanent exhibition on work. The works by Pavel Braila, Anna Jermolaewa, Daniel Knorr etc. study the developments in steel production, energy production, the railway system and our everyday lives.

Technisches Museum Wien mit Österreichischer Mediathek
Mariahilfer Straße 212
1140 Wien

 PHOTO BOOTH ART
‘The Aesthetics behind the Curtain: From the Surrealists to Warhol and Rainer’
10 October 2012 to 13 January 2013

This exhibition shows the artistic potential of photo booths. Well-known artists like Andy Warhol, Arnulf Rainer and Cindy Sherman loved to experiment with it. The exhibition introduces us to more than 300 works by about 60 international artists and the importance of the photo booth in cinematic history.

KUNST HAUS WIEN. Museum Hundertwasser
Untere Weißgerberstraße 13, 1030 Vienna

Book accompanying the exhibition:
Näkki Goranin, American Photobooth, 224 pages

WIM WENDERS
PLACES, STRANGE and QUIET
6 October 2012 to 9 January 2013

For the spontaneous: The photo gallery ‘OstLicht’ shows over forty large-format photographs of the well-known director and photographer WIM WENDERS.The photographs cover a period of 40 years and have been taken on trips to Australia, Armenia, Japan, Italy, the United States and Eastern Germany. The places shown are often empty, abandoned, forgotten or unknown and exude a subtle melancholy and atmosphere of disappearing

OstLicht. Gallery of Photography
Absberggasse 27, A-1100 Vienna
The gallery is closed between December 23, 2012, and January 2, 2013.

Book accompanying the exhibition:
Wim Wenders. Places, strange and quiet
124 pages, 37 colour illustrations, 8 foldouts, hardcover

For those of you who are more into the traditional Viennese design …

High relief, Design by Gustav Klimt, Oesterreichische Werkstaetten

… there is a really interesting exhibition in the MAK on design in Vienna between 1890 and 1938. You can find arts and crafts by Koloman Moser, the Wiener Werkstaette, Josef Hoffmann …

Among the staff of the Wiener Werkstaette was also about a dozen women. Although derided by some critics women like Vally Wieselthier founded their own ateliers and supplied the Wiener Werkstaette with commission goods. Gudrun Baudisch worked in the pottery department of the Wiener Werkstaette and founded in 1945 the well-known “Keramik Hallstatt” (Pottery Hallstatt). Prominent fellow female artists were Reni Schaschl, Hilda Jesser and Susi Singer.

MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, Austria

From 21 11 2012 to 17 03 2013

Check it out at: Vienna 1900. Viennese Art and Crafts, 1890 – 1938

As already outlined, naked men seem to be en vogue in Vienna, because there is another exhibition. It deals with the depiction of sexuality forms beyond homo- and hetero-normativity and the concept of ‘queer abstraction’.

ROSA ARBEIT AUF GOLDENER STRASSE
10 11 2012 – 03 02 2013
xhibit, exhibition rooms of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Schillerplatz 3, 1010 Vienna

Check out further information at: Pink work on a golden street

There is an interesting article about male nudity in the ‘ZEIT magazin’, that explains why there are no images of penises in women’s magazines and why men do not need to flaunt their handsomeness: Incidentally, that is a penis.