Blood - Spike Art Quarterly

tity-creating robes of a cultural nation, but in doing so has limited
itself to recycling eternal truths. »Modernism was a no-man’s-land,«
according to Werner Hofmann, the founding director of MUMOK,
when looking back at the ’60s. Due to powerful galleries in London
and New York, Lassnig, at the age of almost 90, has achieved
an international breakthrough, not because of, but in spite of, her
home in Vienna.
There is a raft of Austrian artists active in the top international
level without their origins playing any part. Erwin Wurm’s One
Minute Sculptures, the Adaptives by Franz West and the Fluxus pop
installations of the gelitin group are displayed in museums all over
the world. At home they exhibit regularly in their own galleries.
The galleries of Krinzinger, Meyer Kainer and Georg Kargl are
among those who play in the international game of art dealership.
»Vienna is very lively, but the market tends to be small« comments
Thaddaeus Ropac, who operates galleries in Salzburg and Paris.
For the first time since between the wars, the Viennese art trade
enjoyed a boom in the ’80s. The young generation of expressive
painters profited from the flourishing market of the Yuppie era.
At the beginning of the ’90s the party was over, the main galleries
closed up shop. At a distance from the market, an especially productive
combination of art theory and art for readers began to
develop. Theory platforms like the Depot or the private art institution
Generali Foundation confirmed Vienna’s reputation as a
discourse metropolis. »Vienna is waiting for you«, was a slogan in
Vienna promotion. One might also say: »Don’t be in a hurry when
you visit Vienna.« The mills of art grind slowly here, but constantly.
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SPIKE ART GUIDE EAST 01 — 2009 Vienna
Vienna is
very lively,
but the art
market
tends to
be small
259
Vienna