A. Tikhomirov
Art of Austria in the early 19th century. developed in an atmosphere of routine and stagnation in all areas of the economic and cultural life of the country. Metternich, first as Minister of Foreign Affairs, then (since 1821) as Chancellor, establishes a reactionary-political regime that hindered the economic and cultural development countries; his policy suppressed any freedom-loving undertakings. Under such circumstances, it was difficult to expect a flourishing in the field of art.
Among the specific aspects of Austrian art of the 19th century. its almost uninterrupted connection with the art of Germany should be noted. Outstanding artists of one country, often even at the very beginning of their career, moved to another, joining the mainstream of its art. The Vienna-born Moritz von Schwind, for example, became a largely German artist.
On the features of Austrian art of the 19th century. we must also include the fact that the artistic life of Austria at that time was concentrated in one city - Vienna, which, by the way, was also the center of musical culture of world significance. The Habsburg court, which played a significant role in the stronghold of the international reaction of that time - in the Holy Alliance, sought to give its capital an exceptional brilliance, using both foreign and domestic artists. Vienna had one of the oldest academies in Europe (founded in 1692). True, by the beginning of the 19th century. it was a stagnant institution, but by the middle of the century its pedagogical value increased. It began to attract artists of various nationalities (Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats), who were part of the Habsburg Empire and, in the process of bourgeois development, began to strive to create their own cultural personnel. In the 19th century gradually, within the framework of the "dual monarchy", national art schools of these nations, showing more creative power than Austrian art proper, as can be seen from the example of the creativity of the Hungarian and Czech peoples. It is from among these nations that the 19th century will emerge. a number of significant artists.
Austrian architecture during the first half of the 19th century did not create anything significant. The situation has changed since the 1950s, when extensive construction was undertaken in Vienna, connected with the redevelopment of the city, due to the rapid growth of the population. The Dane Theophilus Edward Hansen (1813-1891) is building a lot in the capital. The somewhat cold classicizing buildings of Hansen (Parliament, 1873-1883) are distinguished by their wide scope, large scale, but their facades did not reflect the internal structure of the building. The Parliament entered the ensemble of pompous buildings on the Ringstrasse, in which the architects eclectically used various styles. Zikkard von Zikkardsburg (1813-1868) and Eduard van der Nüll (1812-1868) during construction Opera House in Vienna (1861-1869) were guided by the French Renaissance. The Town Hall (1872-1883) was built by Friedrich Schmidt (1825-1891) in the style of Dutch Gothic. Semper built a lot in Vienna (see the section on German art), and, as always, his buildings were based on the principles of Renaissance architecture. Sculpture - monumental in particular - complemented the representativeness of public buildings, but was of little artistic value.
Classicism, which to some extent manifested itself in architecture, almost did not find its expression in painting (although the heroic views of Italy were painted in Rome by the Tyrolean Josef Anton Koch, 1768-1839). At the beginning of the 19th century painting touched romanticism. It was in Vienna in 1809 that by German artists Overbeck and Pforr founded the Union of St. Luke. After these artists moved to Rome, they were joined by Josef von Fürich (1800-1876), a native of the Czech Republic, a student of the Prague Academy, who worked in Prague and Vienna; he, like all Nazarenes, wrote compositions on religious subjects.
However, the determining factor for the art of Austria was still not the romanticism of the Nazarenes, but the art of the Biedermeier (see the section on the art of Germany), which is evident in the development of all genres of art, including portraiture. In the portrait, the haughty appearance of an aristocrat of the 18th century. is replaced by the image of a person in his home family environment; deepening interest in the inner spiritual world of the "private person" with his worries and joys. Not spectacular impressiveness, but scrupulous accuracy is also revealed in the manner of performance. Among the portrait miniature painters of the early 19th century. Moritz Michael Duffinger (1790-1849) stood out. His portrait of his wife (Vienna, Albertina), despite the detail and small size, is an emotional painting of a broadly and boldly taken relationship. There is something romantic in the stormy landscape, and in the lively face of the depicted, and in the trembling with which man and nature are merged.
The features of the new, bourgeois portrait were gradually established in the work of Josef Kreuzinger (1757-1829), as evidenced by his works completed in the early 19th century. He seeks to characterize spiritual world new people of educational circles, which the era begins to put forward. In the portrait of the Hungarian educator Ferenc Kazinci, who suffered for participating in the Jacobin conspiracy (1808; Budapest, Academy of Sciences), the artist conveyed the nervous tension of Kazinci's intellectual face. The portrait of Eva Passy (Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries) is a typical work of the Biedermeier: the calm beauty of everyday life is reflected in the whole appearance of an elderly woman, attentively looking at the viewer, of a rather ordinary appearance, but with a calm consciousness of her dignity. Noteworthy is the diligent finishing of all the details of the decoration: lace, stitching, ribbons.
All these features are repeated in the work of one of the most typical representatives Austrian Biedermeier, Friedrich von Amerling (1803-1887). Of particular interest are his works of the 1930s: a lovingly executed portrait of his mother (1836; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries) and a large portrait of Rudolf von Arthaber with children (1837; ibid.). This is already a portrait that is becoming a genre everyday scene: a widower, surrounded by his children, sits in a well-furnished room in an easy chair and looks at a miniature that his four-year-old daughter shows him, hardly realizing that this is an image of a recently deceased mother. Sentimentality, however, does not turn into sugary tearfulness, everything is calm, fine, serious. Such plots, obviously, corresponded to the spirit of the times. Franz Eibl (1806-1880), a talented contemporary of Amerling, owns a portrait of the landscape painter Wipplinger (1833; Vienna, Gallery 19th and 20th centuries), contemplating a portrait of his deceased sister.
Other Austrian portrait painters also often painted group portraits - mostly large families. Sometimes these everyday scenes, as if written from nature, approached the depiction of the events of our time, which seemed Significant, became peculiar historical documents epoch, as if converging with those scenes of parades with portrait images of those present, which Franz Kruger painted in Berlin. Such scenes of modern events with the inclusion of portrait figures were three large compositions written by Johann Peter Kraft (1780-1856) for the audience hall of the State Chancellery of the palace castle: “Entry into Vienna of the victors in the Battle of Leipzig”, “Meeting of Emperor Franz by the Viennese citizens in the Vienna Hofburg at his return from the Diet in Bratislava" and "Franz's Departure after a Long Illness". The great thing about these works - image crowds, especially the foreground figures. The second composition seems to be more successful - the meeting of Franz with a burgher crowd. With all the deliberateness of the loyalist tendency, which introduces a false note, the crowd of a large number of figures is made skillfully and very lively.
Paintings of this kind approached the genre, the image of modern life. Genre painting in the Austrian Biedermeier was widely used. In Austria, due to the strict limits set by the Metternich regime, she was only able to follow the narrow path of depicting minor episodes. privacy petty-bourgeois citizen. Painting big topic excluded from the horizon of the Biedermeier era until the revolution of 1848.
The artists of this trend, who formed the main core of the Old Viennese school, including the most prominent of them, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1793-1865), consciously set the goal of their art to depict reality truthfully. But this truth could only be very relative under conditions of police surveillance. If one could believe the idyllic picture of Austrian life that the Biedermeier artists created, the revolutionary events of 1848 would be absolutely incomprehensible and impossible. In fact, the brilliance of the court elite of the feudal state and the relative prosperity of the middle classes rested on the most severe exploitation and poverty of the working people, especially the peasantry. Nevertheless, this art was almost the only opportunity for more or less wide circles of the Austrian petty bourgeoisie to express their small joys - family and household, to display good looks and peace. everyday life, despite the fact that this was possible only within the narrow limits permitted by the "protective regime". A jet of human warmth penetrates into these small paintings, executed not only with the most conscientious care, but also with great good skill and artistic taste. In the work of Waldmuller, almost all genres of Austrian Biedermeier painting received, as it were, the final incarnation. He exhibited his first portraits at an academic exhibition in 1822, the first genre paintings - in 1824. He attracts attention and is a success. One of Waldmüller's first orders was characteristic. Colonel Stirle-Holzmeister commissioned him to paint a portrait of his mother "exactly as she is". This was in keeping with Waldmüller's own artistic guidelines. In the portrait (c. 1819; Berlin, National Gallery), the customer's requirement to be documentary accurate was completely fulfilled by the artist, despite the somewhat unattractiveness of the model with carefully curled curls over a flabby face and an abundance of ribbons, lace and bows. But even these details are perceived and shown by the artist not mechanically outwardly, but as a characteristic of that bourgeois circle, frozen in its pettiness; the artist appreciates and loves this way of life and elevates even the external details of this life into an immutable law.
The self-portrait (1828; Vienna, Gallery, 19th and 20th centuries) is also characteristic of early works. Here the artist makes the same somewhat self-satisfied statement of the bourgeois way of life by depicting himself. Waldmüller painted himself as he was or wanted to be during these years of his success - a dandy dandy with an intricate tie, collar, smart striped waistcoat under an elegant dark suit; his reddish hair is curled, next to the light gloves and silk hat - a flower and lush leaves. pink face with blue eyes calmly, cheerfully, almost serenely in his youthful self-confidence; the artist shows himself as a successful member of a prosperous society who does not want much and is satisfied with the little achieved. Waldmüller's portrait heritage is extensive, it can be traced some evolution in the direction of an ever greater deepening of the psychological characteristics, as can be seen in the portrait depicting an elderly Russian diplomat, Count A. K. Razumovsky (1835; Vienna, private collection), sitting in a dark dressing gown at a desk . The elongated, thin face with sunken cheeks is thin and restrainedly calm. Somewhat asymmetrical eyes look towards the viewer, but past him, as if mentally imagining the one whose letter he has just read. He is motionless. Everything is immersed in partial shade, except for the face, the letter with the envelope, part of the waistcoat and the hands, which stand out as bright outlines from the darkness of the study, the walls of which are hung with paintings. This is one of the best works Waldmuller, and indeed one of the best portraits of the Biedermeier era.
Very great place In the work of Waldmuller, genre-everyday scenes are occupied - from the life of mainly ordinary inhabitants of the city and the countryside. The artist depicted peasant life long before the Düsseldorfers. He writes from the nature of the people around him. But already in the plots themselves, an idyllic unctuousness is striking. This can be seen in most of Waldmüller's works of the 1940s: "Return from School" (Berlin, National Gallery), "Perchtolds-dorf Village Wedding" (Vienna, Gallery 19 and 20), "Spiritual Choir on Midsummer Day" (Vein, Historical Museum), "Farewell of the Bride" (Berlin, National Gallery). These compositions sometimes contain a lot of figures and are always carefully worked out in detail; the most successful in them are the figures of old people and especially children, despite the fact that the good-naturedness and gaiety of the pretty boys and girls depicted by him make a somewhat deliberate impression.
Since the 30s. the artist is fascinated by the task of incorporating figures and figure groups into the landscape. Problem sunlight, the transmission of the air environment, the space permeated with the sparkle of reflexes, gradually begin to interest Waldmüller more and more. At the same time, his optimistic attitude is very organically embodied in these compositions. As an example of such a new solution, one can point to "Faggot Gatherers in the Vienna Woods" (1855; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries) and "Early Spring in the Vienna Woods" (1862; New York, collection of O. Callier). The transfer of objects shrouded in air, sunlight (these later works were written by Waldmüller under open sky), did not weaken the impression of materiality: the trunks of its beeches and elms with their rounded spotted bark are voluminous and material; voluminous and material are the folds of the peasant clothes of his healthy children, bustling about among the thickets that cover the dense Earth of suburban hills.
From 1829 to 1857 Waldmüller was a professor at the Vienna Academy; young people aspired to learn from him, he supported young artists of other nationalities in every possible way. In particular, Waldmuller turned to the Hungarian Diet with a proposal for a number of organizational measures to support the artistic education of talented Hungarian youth. Waldmüller, as a realist artist, becomes in opposition to academic methods of teaching and publishes a sharp polemical pamphlet "On the more expedient teaching of painting and plastic arts." The treatise infuriates the academic Areopagus, they organize persecution against Waldmuller, they begin to fight him with administrative measures. In 1849, Waldmüller published a new brochure, Proposals for the Reform of the Austrian Royal Academy. The Academy seeks to reduce his salary to the level of a museum watchman, and then removes him from teaching and reduces his pension.
Waldmüller is far superior to his contemporaries in many respects. And yet, both in the field of landscape and in the field of genre, one cannot pass by a few artists of lesser importance, whose work is characteristic of Austrian art. In the field of landscape, these are the Alt family-Jakob Alt (1789-1872) and his sons Franz (1821-?) and especially the most gifted of them Rudolf (1812-1905). All three were masters of watercolor, worked extensively in Italy, but at the same time they significantly contributed to the growth of interest in the motifs of the Austrian landscape. Jacob Alt published in 1818-1822. a series of lithographs "A picturesque journey along the Danube", and in 1836 - "Views of Vienna and its environs". Alta's attempt was not only an individual experiment, it corresponded to the growing process of the growth of national self-consciousness, expressed in the awakening of interest in native nature.
Rudolf von Alt learned a lot from the artists of the English school; his works are distinguished by their warm colors and the feeling of light and air. At first he painted architectural motifs (“View of the Church in Klosterneuburg”, 1850; Vienna, Albertina). But in later works, his views of the city take on the character of sketches of the life of modern Vienna (“The Market on the Palace Square in Vienna”, 1892; ibid.). While maintaining the transparent lightness of watercolor, Rudolf Alt increasingly enhances the expressive power of the rhythm of volumes and the characteristics of the motifs he has taken (“Siena”, 1871; Vienna, private collection). A large number of gifted landscape painters, whose significance, however, was predominantly local (R. Ribarz, F. Gauermann, F. Loos, and many others), worked diligently and often successfully around these artists.
Also in the field of genre, Waldmüller was not an isolated phenomenon. Josef Danhauser (1805-1845) was very popular in his time with his sentimental compositions (for example, Mother's Love, 1839; Vienna, Gallery 19th and 20th centuries).
Among the numerous genre painters, Austrian art historians now single out Michael Neder (1807-1882), who was previously contemptuously silent. A shoemaker by profession, despite four years of academic study, he retained some traits of the spontaneity of the self-taught. There is no virtuosity in his paintings, but there is no template in them either, they are humane. Neder was the first in these years to turn to depicting the life of artisans, working people (his drawing “Shoemaker’s Workshop” is stored in the Vienna Albertina, where he depicted himself in one of the figures - the need forced him to earn his living by shoemaking after the Academy).
In the 70-80s. in Austria, two lines in the development of art were sharply outlined. The rapidly enriching elite of the bourgeoisie begins to buy works of art of a "museum appearance" - "under the old masters" (mainly Italian). In Austria this false direction is served by Hans Makart (1840-1884). Hans Makart, who studied in Munich with Piloty, settled in Vienna when he was not yet thirty years old. He worked in Munich, London, Paris, Antwerp and Madrid, was in Egypt, achieved the greatest success in Vienna, where he was a professor at the Academy for the last five years of his life. Makart enjoyed great success, especially among the prosperous bourgeoisie and aristocracy of Vienna. His art, outwardly spectacular, decorative and imitative, does not have the true qualities of those classics, which it seeks to outshine. The ability to write accessories - fabrics, furs, etc., received from Piloty - Makart supplements with countless figures of naked women in far-fetched angles, devoid of life's truth. For the rhetoric of Makart, located in the Vienna Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries, is characteristic. a fragment (almost 5 X 8 m) of his Triumph of Ariadne (1873), which served as a curtain at the Comic Opera in Vienna.
However, the pomposity of official art was opposed by realistic art. As one of the manifestations of the vitality of realism, one should recognize the work of an Austrian officer who worked a lot in Hungary - August von Pettenkofen (1822-1889). Pettenkofen studied at the Vienna Academy for eight years. He was a witness revolutionary events 1848-1849 and left sketches of them. His sketches (“Storm of the Buda Castle by the People”, 1849; Budapest, Historical Gallery, etc.) are distinguished by the sharp truthfulness with which the artist conveys the dramatically intense episodes he briefly saw. Pettenkofen fell in love with Hungary - the country and the people. For almost forty years he worked every summer in the valley of the Tisza; settled in the end in the town of Szolnok (subsequently a whole art colony Hungarian artists), Pettenkofen painted bazaars with carts, horses at a watering hole, gardens with wattle fences, Hungarian peasants and peasant women in their picturesque village attire, gypsies near camps and villages, sometimes he wrote a little hard, but with a keen interest in the life of the country he loved.
More compromising is the work of the Tyrolean Franz von Defregger (1835-1921), who worked in Germany. Defregger quit his peasant life and began to seriously engage in painting only at the twenty-fifth year of his life. Without finishing his studies in Munich, he left for his native Tyrol and began to paint portraits of the peasants around him. After a trip to Paris, he studied with Piloty in Munich, and from 1878 to 1910 he himself became a professor at the Munich Academy. There is too much deliberately festive in Defregger's paintings - red-cheeked girls and dashing guys in folk costumes. But there is another side to his work. In particular, the paintings depicting the Tyroleans in the struggle against the invasion of Napoleon are very convincing in their specificity. Such are his compositions “The Last Militia” (1874; Vienna, Gallery 19th and 20th centuries), showing how the older generation of the village goes to the front, armed with homemade weapons, and “Before the Uprising of 1809” (1833; Dresden, Gallery). Defregger finds a characteristic pictorial language for this event - a restrained hot range, the rhythm of movements, the expressiveness of types.
Just as in Germany and in many other European countries, the end of the 19th century. marked in the art of Austria by the emergence of new modernist trends. But this stage in the development of Austrian art belongs to the next historical period. Outwardly, this is expressed in the emergence of the Vienna exhibition association "Secession".
A. Tikhomirov (fine arts); O. Shvidkovsky, S. Khan-Magomedov (architecture)
The great-power policy of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was largely based on the oppression and exploitation of the numerous nationalities that were part of Austria-Hungary, did not stand the test of the world war of 1914-1918. The contradictions of the multinational state, which could not be resolved within the framework of a capitalist society, led to the collapse of the "patchwork empire". Among the states that re-emerged on its ruins next to Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Austria found its new existence in the form of a bourgeois republic, the political and economic prerequisites for the development of which differed significantly from the previous period. Since 1938, the occupation of Austria by fascist Germany began, and only after the defeat of Hitlerism were there opportunities for the revival of Austria's own culture under the conditions of its existence as a neutral bourgeois state.
Late 19th - early 20th century are associated in Austria with an in-depth search for new ways of developing architecture, which had a great influence on the entire European architecture and played a significant role in the development of various creative areas of new architecture. During this period, a whole galaxy of talented architects emerged in Austria, whose influence went far beyond the borders of the country - Josef Olbrich (1867-1908), Otto Wagner (1841-1918), Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), Adolf Loos (1870-1933 ). The work of each of them had their own individual characteristics, but they all made a significant contribution to the development modern architecture(search for new architectural and artistic means, the development of new methods of planning and spatial composition of buildings, the introduction of materials such as metal, glass, reinforced concrete into construction). All these architects, to a greater or lesser extent, experienced in their work the influence of Art Nouveau (associated with the organization of the Secession in 1897), but the Austrian Art Nouveau was distinguished by a certain restraint in the use of decor, which, as a rule, did not pretend to leading role in creating the external appearance of the building, but was used as a compositional accent (entrance, crowning of the building) or ornamental framing of large wall planes. Typical examples are the Secession building in Vienna (1897-1898) and the exhibition building in Darmstadt (1907-1908), built according to the designs of I. Olbrich, the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1905-1911, architect I. Hoffmann), the station of the Vienna urban railway (late 1890s, architect O. Wagner).
In 1904-1906. according to the project of O. Wagner in Vienna, the building of the post office and the savings bank was built, in which the layout, floor structures and equipment of the operating room were rationally solved.
One of the brightest pages in the development of Austrian architecture of this period is the work of A. Loos, who acted as a theorist and propagandist of functional architecture and a passionate opponent of functionally unjustified architectural forms and decorative ornaments. Loos consistently brought his vision to life, creating works whose rational layout and simple geometric forms (smooth walls devoid of decoration) anticipated many features of European functionalism in the 1920s. (Steiner's house in Vienna, 1910).
The paintings of Karl Schuch (1846-1903), an artist who was largely influenced by Cezanne in the 1880s and 1890s, also occupy a prominent place at the exhibitions of the Secession. Shukh repeatedly and for a long time worked outside home country: in Italy, Holland, Belgium, Paris and Munich. Next to his comrades in the Secession, Schuh looks more like a realist; he is always fascinated by nature, the images of which he seeks to capture with increased tension, contrasting color relationships. However, the picturesque culture of Shukh did not find a purpose for itself due to the lack of connection between the artist's work and the spiritual life of his people.
Alfred Kubin and Oskar Kokoschka became characteristic spokesmen for expressionist tendencies in Austrian art. In his grotesque fantasy sketches and pen drawings, Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) tries to create a kind of apocalyptic "waste" for the dying bourgeois society. The feeling of doom, fear, impending doom, pessimism Kubin also puts into his illustrations for the works of a wide variety of writers. In Prague, he meets F. Kafka. Delusional visions and hallucinations are mixed in Kubin's mind with observations of reality. Sometimes in his drawings, trees turn into animals, houses into creepy living creatures; "sketches of dreams" he calls his sketches. It seems that the artist lives in an atmosphere of some kind of terrifying nightmare that colors all his life observations. Having studied the work of Bosch and Brueghel for a long time, Kubin at the beginning of his long career was closer to symbolism (the drawing “War”, gradually moving to more and more intense expressionism. In order to enhance the hypnosis of his phantasmagoria, he deforms what he saw and his visions, willingly depicts an eerie or repulsive. In his "Old Miller's Woman" he depicts in detail the yard of a running mill with fragments of millstones, garbage and a snake crawling towards clumsy toads, which she wants to swallow. " old fisherman He looks like a prickly fish, next to which he stands, all overgrown with some kind of mud. Kubin consciously renounces all "skill" ostensibly for the sake of directly conveying the sincerity of the experience. But, gradually imbued with images of decay, he himself is to some extent infected by the decay depicted by him; he lacks the courage of a whistleblower; he locks himself up for decades in seclusion in his provincial house in Zwickledt (northern Austria). Kubin created not only cycles of his fantasies (Zanzara, 1911; The Seven Deadly Sins, 1915; Wild Beasts, 1920; Dance of Death, 1925 and 1947; Demons and Ghosts, 1926, etc.) "but also illustrated a lot of Edgar Allan Poe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Strindberg, Dostoevsky ("Double") - over eighty works of art. In the work of these writers, he primarily sought to see the reflection of the painful mental phenomena of his contemporary man. He also illustrated his own autobiographical novel The Other Side (1908). Kubin's work is in some respects close to the art of James Ensor, Munch, and partly Odilon Redon.
The work of the German-Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1959) was also typical of the era. In the painting style of Kokoschka, some researchers saw echoes of the influences of the Austrian baroque (in particular, Maulberch - a moment of fluent improvisation). But, of course, he is primarily associated with the phenomena of Austrian decadence; after 1910 he acts as one of the founders of expressionism. Kokoschka began exhibiting at the Secession in 1897, next to Klimt and Schiele. The artist at that time was under the influence of Freud's teachings. In the works of this period, for example in portraits, realistic start is already gradually giving way to the growing sound of subjectivist moments. In The Dreaming Boy (1908; private collection), there is a noticeable echo with the works of Picasso's "blue" period. Portrait of a psychiatrist A. Forel (1908; Manheim, Kunsthalle) is one of Kokoschka's most powerful works, in best portraits which manifests the ability of the artist to penetrate the spiritual world of the depicted, his mental state. The artist perceives a person as something constantly changing, unsteady, barely perceptible. Kokoschka often stands on the verge of detachment from reality; conjectures and dreams bring moments of visionary, sometimes nightmare, into the portraits. Even in the portrait of Forel, the person depicted appears to us as if ghostly, and his sharply grasped characteristic real features are seen, as it were, half-erased, dissolved in a shimmering environment. Sometimes Kokoschka informs his portrait images more general meaning. This is his painting of St. Veronica" (1912; Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts) with a shroud in her hands, which depicts the bloodied face of the tortured Christ.
Kokoschka also painted a lot of thematic compositions (panel-triptych "Thermopylae", 1954, University of Hamburg; "Bound Columbus", "Job", "Emigrants", 1916-1917, Bolzano, private collection), but they, despite the increased color are less convincing than portraits. Kokoschka also painted still lifes, tragic in their worldview (“Still Life with a Dead Lamb”, 1910; Vienna, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries). Kokoschka’s landscapes are also peculiar, almost always with a very high and wide horizon; for the most part they are panoramic ("Courtyard of the Louvre", 1929; "Prague, Charles Bridge", 1934; "Matternhorn", 1947). Kokoschka traveled a lot, and painted views of European and Asian cities. They were, as it were, colorful panoramic portraits of the cities in which he lived. But this stream of color characteristics in their rapid fluency does not give the Spectator a stable image.
In the work of Kokoschka, the fractures and illnesses of the difficult era of his homeland were reflected. After him, Austrian art no longer singled out phenomena of the same strong sound.
Rather pale rehashings of Cézannenism continued to appear in Austrian art. It almost does not find continuation of those trends of "new thingness", which in the 20-30s. were associated with the work of the Lake Constance artist Rudolf Wacker (1893-1939), who, in addition to characteristic landscapes, painted many still lifes. Wacker liked to compose his still lifes from whimsical items of laboratory equipment, drugs, toys, objects invented and created by man, different from natural things or habitable household items.
Conditions public life Austria in the 20th century determined the instability and complexity of the phenomena of fine art, often the simultaneous existence of various contradictory individual searches or even entire trends. The most characteristic phenomena cited above, to a certain extent, by no means exhaust all the diversity of the fine arts of Austria in the period described. In the Tyrolean motives of A. Egger-Linz (1868-1926), sometimes, despite the stylization, progressive folk moments also sounded. At the same time, Klimt's decadent pretentiousness had adherents in the person of Egon Schiele (1890-1918). A decisive general trend in Austrian art recent decades cannot be found; there is a noticeable movement towards surrealism and abstractionism, and not only in painting (E. Fuchs), but also in sculpture (F. Votruba, b. 1907). In creativity latest material(stone), the dense weight of which he tries to reveal first of all, obscures and deadens the vital object of the image. Votruba goes towards abstraction. Professor of the Vienna Academy Herbert Böckl (b. 1894), who initially worked in the spirit of Kokoschka and Schiele's expressionism, evolves towards more abstract painting; he, however, made wall paintings on religious themes (in Maria-Saal, Carinthia, 1920s, and in Seckau, 1954-1955). But the content for Böckl is only a pretext for spatial-volumetric and coloristic constructions. In Austria, his easel compositions are also successful.
Austrian art of the post-war years is still in search of its own path and originality.
Formed in 1919 after the collapse of patchwork Austria-Hungary, the relatively small state of Austria in terms of population and territory received as its capital an almost two million city, which was created as the capital of the vast Habsburg empire. Therefore, construction in Austria during the period under review is mainly associated with Vienna, where more than a quarter of the country's population lived.
In Vienna, an acute housing crisis was felt, which became more and more socially dangerous for the ruling classes. The Social Democratic majority of the Vienna municipality, elected by the votes of the workers, in an effort to consolidate their successes in the next elections, introduced an earmarked tax and launched the construction of housing for workers. It was a broadly conceived social-reformist plan, which pursued the goal of proving the possibility of fundamentally improving the material conditions of life of workers within the framework of bourgeois society by means of reformist methods. However, while recognizing the social and demagogic essence of the Vienna municipal construction of the 1920s and early 1930s, one cannot but take into account that for the “effectiveness” of their experiment, the Social Democrats had to take into account the social and everyday needs of workers and employees when building new residential complexes. settled in these houses.
Lenin’s words to the effect that “only in cities with a large percentage of the proletarian population is it possible to defend for the working people some of the crumbs of municipal administration” ( V. I. Lenin, Works, vol. 16, p. 339.).
Viennese municipal construction largely determined the entire creative direction of Austrian architecture in the 1920s and early 1930s. Construction was carried out on free plots, which made it possible to create relatively large residential complexes. A certain building density standard was set (no more than 50 percent), requirements were developed for residential apartment projects (mandatory direct lighting of all premises, optimal orientation to the cardinal points, etc.). Most interesting in the experience of Vienna's municipal construction is the desire to organize communal services for residents (complexes Sandleiten, Engelshof, Karl-Markshof, etc.). The complexes arranged playgrounds for children, swimming pools, kindergartens and nurseries were built, special consultations for mothers, libraries - reading rooms for young people, medical aid points, public laundries, baths.
As for such problems of housing construction (on which the architects of a number of other European countries worked at that period), as the rational planning of the complex, the use of modern building materials and structures, the use of the achievements of applied sciences in the design of an apartment, etc., then in these matters the achievements of Austrian architects were very modest. Interesting in social relations Viennese residential complexes were largely conservative in terms of urban planning (scattered sections that were not interconnected in the general structure of the city; perimeter development), as well as in the layout and equipment of apartments. Houses were built mainly of brick, and their appearance in many complexes it was archaic: emphatically symmetrical composition, rustication, arches, decorative sculpture (for example, the Karl-Marxhof complex, 1927-1929, architect K. En).
A certain social orientation of the Viennese residential complexes, on the one hand, and, it would seem, a strange desire for emphasized splendor in their external appearance, on the other, clearly reflected the contradictory goals of all this noisily advertised construction. Ultimately, for the social democratic leadership of the Vienna municipality, meeting the housing needs of the workers was not so much a goal as a means of propagating their social reformist doctrine.
The overall great work on the design and construction of residential complexes, in which many Austrian architects took part, overshadowed the struggle of various creative directions during this period, which was very acute in the prewar years. This is largely due to the fact that in the 20's - early 30's. in the work of Austrian architects, the emphasis in creative searches has changed significantly. The main thing was no longer in stylistic differences and not even in functional and constructive techniques and means, but in the search for a new social approach to creating a residential complex for workers. And the Viennese municipal construction, for all the limitations of its goals, had certain achievements precisely in social questions.
The significance of the Viennese complexes in the housing construction of the capitalist countries lies not in their mass character, but in the fact that in this construction, as a result of the influence of specific historical conditions(social transformations in the USSR, a revolutionary upsurge in a number of European countries, the struggle for the votes of workers-voters, etc.) architectural solutions to a certain extent they took into account the real everyday and social needs of the working class (clubs, nurseries, etc.). It is no coincidence that after the reactionary coup in Austria carried out in 1934 by Dollfuss, which was accompanied by the destruction of the workers' organizations, all the clubs in the workers' complexes were closed.
After the reactionary coup, and especially after the Anschluss (Austria's accession to Nazi Germany in 1938), many progressive architects were forced to emigrate from the country. In Austrian architecture, the desire for pomposity is increasingly beginning to prevail.
After the elimination of the Nazi dictatorship and the revival of national independence in Austria, since 1945, a certain democratization of public life and culture has taken place. Once again, as after the war of 1914-1918, the question of eliminating the acute housing need caused by significant military destruction arises with all its might. As in a number of other European countries, the state was forced to allocate certain appropriations (mainly in the form of loans) for the so-called "social" (cheap) housing construction. New residential complexes, in contrast to the pre-war ones, are being built taking into account modern urban planning principles - free planning, mixed development. In this regard, the post-war residential complexes are a step forward in the development of Austrian architecture.
Among the residential complexes built in Vienna in the post-war period, two can be distinguished, designed by the architect F. Schuster. One of these complexes (Per-Albin-Hanson, 1949-1953) consists of two-story block houses with plots, two schools, a nursery, a club, a clinic, a library and shopping center; the second one (on Ziemenshtrasse, 1950-1954) was conceived as an experimental one - with the aim of testing various methods of planning a residential area and individual types of houses (single-family, block, multi-apartment).
When designing new residential complexes, architects are increasingly focusing on aesthetic pursuits, such as experimenting with the use of color to enhance artistic expressiveness both individual houses and residential complexes as a whole.
rice. on page 210.
In the field of construction of public buildings, Austrian architects have made significant progress in designing schools, children's institutions, swimming pools, etc. Austrian architects have also contributed to the development of sports and entertainment buildings with a universal transforming hall. One of the outstanding buildings of this type is the Stadthalle (city hall) in Vienna, built according to the project of architect R. Reiner and engineer F. Baravalle selected as a result of an international competition in 1954-1958. The architect was faced with the task of creating a building that combines the functions of a stadium and an assembly hall. The three small halls of the Stadthalle are designed for practicing certain sports (gymnastics, ball games, figure skating). The fourth hall - the main one - measuring 100 x 100 m (along the axes), accommodating 16 thousand people, is equipped with special devices for quickly converting it into a hall for athletics competitions, a skating rink, a concert hall, a cycle track, an exhibition hall, a circus arena, a room for festivals and mass gatherings. With the help of a system of movable partitions about the total volume of the hall, which has the shape of an elongated octagon in plan, it is possible to separate rooms of different cubic capacity. The appearance of the building in which the main hall is located is not quite usual either. Its three-dimensional composition reveals the spatial structure of the interior, covered without supports by metal trusses supported by steel frame frames and inclined reinforced concrete structures of stands for spectators. The Stadthalle complex, which also includes outdoor sports grounds (football field), has become compositional center densely built-up residential quarters surrounding it and successfully blended into the green massif of the city park adjoining it.
IN post-war years Significant construction took place in Linz, which is rapidly growing on the basis of the development of industry.
The name of the famous Austrian artist, graphic artist and book illustrator Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is inextricably linked with Art Nouveau, and his paintings are its most striking manifestation. Klimt was one of the most interesting and sought-after representatives of the world fine arts. He never sought to demonstrate to the public his exclusivity. He worked quietly, calmly, doing only what he considered necessary, and, meanwhile, there were not so many masters in the world who would have been so favored by the public, showered with orders and did not experience financial difficulties. This is one of the mysteries of Klimt. Klimt was born in the family of an engraver and jeweler near Vienna. The father could not achieve prosperity with the help of his craft. The family will come out of poverty only after Gustav, having graduated from the School decorative arts, together with his brother Ernst and friend Franz Match, he will create a company for the implementation of artistic and decorative works. Within a few years, while the company existed, Klimt won the fame of the best painter-decorator in Austria. However, the artist was not satisfied with himself, his style. Everything was still ahead. His first features unique style appeared for the first time in the murals of the Grand Staircase of the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, created in 1890-1891. In 1897, Klimt headed the Secession, an association of artists created in opposition to official art. In 1900, he began the work proposed by the University of Vienna, and presented the painting of one of the plafonds - "Philosophy". It was then that the scandal erupted. On this ceiling, and then on the next - "Medicine" and "Jurisprudence" - the artist violated all the laws of color and composition, combining the incongruous. On his panel, a person appears as a slave of his nature, obsessed with pain, sex and death. Such a Klimt both shocked and fascinated. But the scandal ended with the fact that the artist, having borrowed money, returned the advance to the university, and kept the work for himself. There were so many orders that this allowed him to quickly repay the debt and in the future not to think about money at all. 
The "golden" period in the work of Klimt began. He writes a huge number of paintings, which, having looked once, you will never forget. Whether he paints naked, frankly sensual bodies (“Girlfriends”, “Adam and Eve”) or the tension of feelings between two lovers (“Love”, “Kiss”, “Rapture”), or portraits of women commissioned (portraits of Sonia Knips, Fritz Ridler, Adele Bloch-Bauer, Eugenia and Meda Primavesi, Frederica Maria Bier) - in any case, a personal vision of the world around and the person in it is manifested. And it's mesmerizing. Here, for example, . On a dais (platform? hill?), strewn with flowers, against the background of darkened gold, two young lovers are depicted, merged in a kiss. The picture shows only the face of a girl and the head of a young man, the hands of embracing young people and the girl's leg, hanging as if over an abyss. But most importantly, both figures are hidden by decorative clothes decorated with spirals, ovals, circles and other geometric figures, so that it is not immediately possible to distinguish the figures hidden under them. The same manner is typical for portraits. real women. There are many of them, Klimt's women. Charming faces, hairstyles, hands, jewelry, but the dresses and the background, as in a magical kaleidoscope, turn into a unique fairy-tale decoration. This is how he saw a person, his beauty, weaknesses, fears and passions. And where it was not, nature remained. The artist painted landscapes for himself. So he rested. Maybe that's why critics for a long time bypassed them with their attention. Today, his landscape painting is recognized as the best part of his work. "Blossoming Garden", "Country Garden with Sunflowers", "After the Rain", "Poppy Field", "Birch Grove" are almost realistic. Almost, because a touch of decorativeness is also present in them, making landscapes light, ghostly, airy. Perhaps this is another side of the artist's personality: simplicity, calmness and lightness, which are so lacking in a person with his passions.
For centuries, Austria has retained the stellar status of a cultural center, attracting artists of a truly planetary scale to its orbits. Today, the Austrian art market continues to be one of the richest in Europe.
The heyday of Austria as a center of arts began in the 18th century and took place under the auspices of the imperial house of Habsburg. In the heyday of the empire, baroque dominated, famous representatives of which were Johann Michael Rottmayr and Franz Anton Maulberch, who were distinguished by a very peculiar, from the point of view of his contemporaries, casual manner. These artists, whose prices reach $200,000 to $300,000, are infrequent visitors to both auctions and galleries. Rottmayr is occasionally found in Vienna, while Maulburch is more common in London and Germany.
The same rarity in Vienna, and throughout the world, is the amazing works of Franz Xaver Messerschmidt for their time. Initially working in the style of classicism, the sculptor, as he developed mental disorder began to create the so-called "characteristic heads" - busts with broken, bizarre facial expressions. It was these "heads" that turned out to be the most famous part of Messerschmidt's legacy. The record for his work was set in 2005 at Sotheby's in New York - $ 4,300,000.
On the other hand, the creations of Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder, a talented portrait painter who was highly revered at the court of Russian emperors, are exhibited in Vienna quite often. Lumpy was very industrious and left behind a large number of great portraits aristocratic persons of Austria, Italy, Poland and Russia. At the same time, the prices for his canvases will pleasantly surprise art lovers with a limited budget: this moment the auction record is $103,000.
While in Vienna, you should pay attention to the large portrait of Emperor Joseph II in the Vienna Academy of Arts.
In the footsteps of the Biedermeier
In the first half of the 19th century, Biedermeier gained wide popularity in Europe. This art style developed within the framework of romanticism, which replaced the Empire style. In the Biedermeier, Empire forms were reworked, gaining intimacy and serving to create coziness in a burgher's house. Such painting is characterized by a careful depiction of interior details, nature and everyday life. Among the Austrian artists of this direction, Moritz von Schwind, known for his frescoes, in particular the paintings of the Vienna Opera, is distinguished, who is practically not found at auctions, and Ferdinand Waldmüller is a frequent visitor to the trading floor. His auction record is about a million euros.
Standing apart is the figure of the artist-academician, representative historical genre and portrait painter Hans Makart. In the history of art, he is known for his influence on Gustav Klimt, and his impressive studio, thanks to the abundance of objects of museum value, was the center of the cultural life of Vienna in its time. Although the artist's work frequently appears on auction sites in Vienna, his record of £155,000 was set in London.
Modern and Expressionism
Austrian fine art gained worldwide fame at the turn of the 20th century, when Vienna became the center of two important trends: Art Nouveau (more commonly referred to as Jugendstil) and Expressionism. One of central figures Gustav Klimt was the central figure in the whole of European Art Nouveau, and, undoubtedly, Gustav Klimt was the central figure in Austrian Art Nouveau. The frank eroticism of his work brought a share of scandal into the life of the artist. However, the artistic beau monde and many wealthy patrons burned with a passionate love for this Art Nouveau genius. Therefore, the master could afford to choose customers and nurture his irresistible craving for the female body, despite the fuss in the camp of limited hypocrites.
In 2006, one of the most famous and significant paintings in the art world - a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer - was purchased for a mind-blowing price of $135 million by Ronald Lauder for the New Gallery in New York. This amount was not only a cost record for the work of the artist, but in general a world record for painting at the time of sale.
There are many places in Vienna where you can see the work of Klimt. In particular, the already mentioned gallery Belvedere, where his painting “The Kiss” stands out in the first place.
Speaking of Austrian Art Nouveau, it is impossible to ignore the Vienna Secession, an association of Viennese artists in the Art Nouveau era led by Klimt. In Vienna, an exhibition pavilion with the same name has been preserved, where you can see a frieze made by Klimt in unstable colors for one of the exhibitions.
Of the modernists who were part of the association, in addition to Klimt, it is perhaps necessary to note Koloman Moser, one of the most significant artists of Austria, best known for the fact that in 1902 he, together with the artist Josef Hoffmann and entrepreneur Fritz Werndorfer, created a very successful Wiener Werkstatte enterprise (for production of industrial design following the example of the Arts and Crafts Movement in England). The largest art collection of Koloman Moser is located in the Leopold Museum in Vienna, and the prices for his works do not exceed several hundred thousand dollars.
In addition to modernists, the association included representatives of expressionism, the main trend of which was the expression of the emotional characteristics of the image or the emotional state of the artist himself. Among the masters of this trend in Austria, the most significant figures are Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.
While in Europe the young painters of the first half of the 20th century were working on the discoveries of the artists of Paris, whose work was turned outward, the Viennese artists went inside the space of the human spirit and, under the influence of Freud's ideas, indulged in reflections on the power of instincts and the subconscious. Kokoschka, Schiele and others have found their own pictorial means to convey these ideas on canvas.
Egon Schiele's life was short but fruitful. His works were in demand already during his lifetime, and after the death of Klimt, he rightfully claimed the role of the leading artist of Austria. Today prices for Schiele's canvases - mostly landscapes and portraits made in various techniques - reach 20 million dollars, and the most famous erotic drawings on paper can be sold for 10 million dollars.
The most important collection of Schiele's work available to the public is in the already mentioned Leopold Museum in Vienna.
One more the biggest figure Austrian and world expressionism is Oskar Kokoschka - artist and writer Czech origin. IN early period of his work, Kokoschka was fascinated portrait genre. His style developed from a subtle linear interpretation to a bright impasto painting, but tragedy and tension did not leave his canvases. Having lived a bright and long life, Kokoschka was relegated to the background in the end, but now interest in his legacy has increased significantly. Accordingly - and prices. The record for a painting was set in London in February 2011 at £1.6 million. It is interesting to note a very lively market for the artist's drawings, where the record price was about $ 1 million, with an average cost of about $ 100 thousand. The artist's paintings often appear at the Vienna auctions.
From fantasy realism to modernity
After the Second World War, in the visual arts of Austria, a Viennese school close to surrealism and based on the traditions of the German Renaissance was formed. fantastic realism, which had a pronounced mystical and religious character and turned to the timeless theme of the study of the hidden corners of the human soul. Its prominent representative, as well as one of the founders, is Ernst Fuchs. The rapid development of the school took place at the beginning of the 60s of the XX century. Being on the same wavelength with psychedelic experiments, Fuchs is engaged not only in painting, but also works in theater and cinema, creates architectural projects and sculpture, writes poetry and philosophical essays. The record price for the artist's works is fixed at the level of 150 thousand dollars. Large museums do not favor the work of this direction with their attention. But who knows, perhaps Fuchs will someday be valued as highly as Roerich.
Among the artists of our time, Gottfried Helnwein, Arnulf Reiner should be mentioned, and in the field of photography, the name of Ernest Haas stands out. The work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser is also widely known. Like Fuchs, Hundertwasser, in addition to painting, made a significant contribution to architecture, decorating in bright colors many of the most ordinary buildings, having designed them "naturally", "environmentally", "biomorphically". At auction sites, the artist's record amounted to 240 thousand pounds. His works can be bought both in Vienna and at the world's largest auctions.
In the 1960s, the radical and provocative movement "Viennese Actionism" arose in the Austrian capital. The actions of the Viennese developed simultaneously with other avant-garde movements in Europe, in particular with the Fluxus movement, but they were more radical and prone to destruction and violence. The works and performances, heavily infused with the memory of the Second World War, were in a sense a reaction to the oppression and social hypocrisy in Austria. Members of the movement injured themselves and manipulated the products of organic life. They saw in these actions a deliverance from the aggression lurking in a person, which manifests itself in the mind of an individual as a result of the suppression by society of the basic instincts of a person.
Digressing from the horrors of actionism, we find that among the currently active Austrian artists on the world stage, Erwin Wurm is noticeable, working in many types and genres, but best known as a sculptor. In the 1990s, Wurm creates a series of "one-minute sculptures" that are " signature dish» artist. These sculptures exist for a short period of time and are recorded on video or in the form of photographs. For example, a person who becomes part of a sculpture balances in an uncomfortable position, takes complex, unstable poses. This approach could be described as performance sculpture.
In addition, his seemingly inflatable houses, deformed cars and figures of people, which are easily read as criticism of the consumer society, are popular. In his works, the artist also ironically speaks about anti-globalism. Wurm's works are offered at all major auctions in the world, in significant galleries and fairs. You can see them in many public collections around the world, in Vienna - in the Belvedere and Albertina galleries.
Heart of the Austrian fine art market
Among the auction houses in Vienna, the largest is the Palais Dorotheum. This is where the heart of the Austrian art market beats. Established in Vienna in 1707, the Dorotheum is today the largest auction house in Central Europe. More than 600 auctions a year are held here. The most important events take place during the four main trading weeks, when works of major movements and periods are sold - from the Old Masters to Art Nouveau and contemporary art. Separate specialized auctions are devoted to less voluminous but equally popular collectibles, such as postage stamps, books, coins or international design items. In addition, daily auctions are held, where connoisseurs and amateurs can always find something interesting for themselves, especially now, in summer, when the Dorotheum is quiet and you can buy everything you like, often at starting prices. Dorotheum also arranges specialized Russian auctions, which were suspended for some time, but have now been resumed.
In addition to the Dorotheum, auctions are active in the Kinsky Palace, in the Hassfurther Gallery, and, of course, representative offices of Sotheby's and Christie's houses are open.
Yes, Vienna, a city that combines elegance and imperial majesty with great taste, offers collectors of all budgets a truly exquisite journey into the depths of time, providing the highest class of service along the way.
A country with a very rich culture and history, a country that gave the world the names of hundreds of famous artists.
Johann Baptiste Lampi (1751-1830), a talented Austrian painter and portrait painter, was educated in Salzburg and Verona. His diligence allowed him to develop his abilities very quickly. His successes were so overwhelming that at the age of 25 he was elected a member of the Verona Academy of Arts.
Upon his return to Austria, Lampi became a famous court painter in Vienna. One of his masterpieces is a portrait of Emperor Joseph II. In 1786 Lampi became a member of the Vienna Academy. A year later, at the invitation of King Stanislaw-August, Lampi went to Warsaw, where he painted portraits of the sovereign and a large number of court nobility. Lampi gained not a little fame in Russia, where he was invited by the Empress Catherine II herself. The artist spent about six years in Russia. He painted portraits of many persons of the royal family, high-born nobles and dignitaries.
Lampi is rightfully considered one of the best portrait painters of that time. For his services in Vienna, he received the title of nobleman and the title of honorary citizen. Lumpy did not part with the brush until the last.
One of the most famous artists, painters of the historical genre of Austria was and remains Joseph Abel. He was born on August 22, 1764, in the city of Ashakh-on-the-Danube. Abel received his artistic education at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Lived in Austria, Poland, Italy. Created a number famous paintings: Antigone kneeling before the corpse of her brother; Reception of Klopstock in Elysium; Death of Cato Utica.
Among the images he recreated, the most famous paintings are: St. Egidius; Orestes; Prometheus chained to the Caucasus; Socrates; Escape to Egypt, etc.
Egon Schiele - Austrian 
th painter and graphic artist was born in 1890. He was a representative of Austrian expressionism. He received his artistic education at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. His first exhibition took place in 1908, and a year later the artist was invited to participate in the exhibition of the Vienna Gallery, where, in addition to his works, Van Gogh, Evard Munch and other famous artists were exhibited.
Despite some troubles in his life, Schiele constantly paints and exhibits successfully. From 1912 to 1916 his works were exhibited in Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Prague, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Zurich, Hagen, Dresden, Berlin, Rome, Cologne, Brussels, Paris. Schiele's life was very short, he died in 1918 from a transient illness.
But, nevertheless, during his short life, Schiele painted about 300 paintings and several thousand drawings. Since then, all of his paintings are constantly present at the world's most famous exhibitions and expositions. Schiele was and remains so popular that, centuries after his death, several books were written about him and filmed. feature film"Egon Schiele - Life as excess" (1981). famous French singer Mylène Farmer in one of her most famous songs"Je te rends ton amour" mentions the artist's name.
Of the modern sculptors in Austria, we can mention a quartet of artists united in a group called Gelatin. The extravagant four impressed everyone with their creations, which in 2005 were presented at the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.
