Blood - Spike Art Quarterly

288
Short
Art History
VIENNA
1947 Foundation of the
Art Club, whose centre, the »Strohkoffer«,
becomes the meeting place for
bohemians. Its first president is Albert
Paris Gütersloh, who as President of
the Secession also has considerable
influence on the younger generation
of artists.
1954 The Catholic clergyman
Monsignor Otto Mauer opens the
Gallery Near St. Stephan’s, which
becomes the meeting point of the art
scene in Vienna.
1962 Foundation of the
Museum of the 20th Century, a kind
of restitution for the Modern movements
suppressed by the Nazis.
7.6.1968 In the University
of Vienna Art and Revolution takes
place, the best known action by Viennese
Actionism. Günter Brus, Otto
Muehl, Peter Weibel and Co. masturbate,
defecate and have themselves
whipped, while the Austrian national
anthem is being sung. Some of the
main performers of the so-called
»Uniferkelei« (uni-swinishness)
received prison sentences.
1975 The exhibition Magna.
Feminismus: Kunst und Kreativität
takes place in the Gallery Near St.
Stephan’s, curated by Valie Export,
and is the first women’s exhibition in
Vienna.
1981 Peter Pakesch opens his
gallery in Vienna. He presents artists
like Martin Kippenberger, Heimo
Zobernig or Franz West to a wider
public for the first time.
1994 Opening of the Depot –
Kunst und Diskussion. It becomes an
important place for an art scene interested
in theory.
2003 The exhibition Blood &
Honey. Future in the Balkans in the
Sammlung Essl in Klosterneuburg,
curated by Harald Szeemann, makes
artists from the Balkans known to a
wider public in the West. The show is
strongly criticised for its geographic
labelling of »Balkans«. Even so, it is a
springboard for many artists into an
international career.
SPIKE ART GUIDE EAST 01 — 2009 Vienna