Categories: austria, postcards
Date: 30 October 2007 22:21:34
Vienna is stuffed full of churches, museums, palaces and architectural delights. I only had four full days which is not enough to even scratch the surface. We made a plan of what we wanted to see and tried to fit as many as possible into the day, bearing in mind that we needed to make time for the reviving cups of tea, Wurst at lunch, the obligatory afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen to keep Master M happy and Abendessen.
We visited the Albertina art gallery where I made a new discovery: Emil Nolde, a German expressionist painter. The pictures I saw were more impressionistic than expressionistic, I thought, which is why I liked them. Also in the Albertina are some of Dürer's works - the famous “Praying Hands” is one of them.
The Haus der Musik was great fun for adults and children. There were lots of interactive installations including composing your own music and conducting an orchestra.
The Jewish Museum had two exhibitions - one “Beste aller Frauen” about the female dimension in Judaism - most of which I think was lost on me as it assumed a lot of background knowledge. The other was “Ordnung muss sein” - detailing the cataloguing of documents kept by the Jewish community which were only discovered in the year 2000. The documents which span a period of 300 years had been locked up in a building and forgotten about for over half a century. It was interesting ...but involved a lot of reading to understand what the documents had been for. The most interesting things to me were in the treasury and were items of everyday use which had been plundered during the Nazi era. In among the various items used for religious purposes were two Hannukah candle stands - one depicting three bears and one with Rotkäppchen looking at the Big Bad Wolf in bed.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is packed with treasures. We were there for over two hours and only had time to make a glancing acquaintance with the Dutch, Flemish and German rooms. The Italian, Spanish and others will have to wait for another visit. I particularly enjoyed seeing the Brueghels again - and the Elder's “Children's Games” is a joy.
The Secession was a bit of a disappointment. It was not open when I lived in Vienna and so I was very much looking forward to seeing it. Gustav Klimt's Beethoven frieze is housed in this museum but although Klimt is a favourite, I found this work rather too pastel and generally lacking in oomph. The rest of the gallery was given over to contemporary installations - all of which were far too modern, abstract and generally uninspiring in my view...so I walked straight through and regretted the entrance fee.
The work of the Wiener Werkstätte was worth seeing in the Museum für angewandte Kunst (applied arts) and I was amazed to find I recognised the work of Margaret Macdonald, wife of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I happened to comment to E that a particular flower looked as if it had been copied from MM's work only to find it was a piece by her! Art critic in the making - not....
I also had time to have a quick dash round the Stephansdom - not as impressive as I remembered. The Michaelerkirche which is elegant in an understated way (although there was some Fest happening in the courtyard - a sort of jumble sale/oompah band combo which was a bit bewildering); and the Peterskirche which is gloriously baroque and has lots of interest to spice up a boring sermon.