My Favorite Paintings at Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien

  

I've visited several famed art academies in the fine art capitals - Firenze (Florence), Venezia (Venice), and the wonderful city of Wien (Vienna) - all of them had at least one amazing iconic piece - Firenze had Michelangelo's perfect David, Venezia had the enigmatic Tempest by Giorgione and the prophetic triptych of Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch was the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien's most recognizable piece, amongst other wonderful paintings by European masters, such as a series of exuberant small-scale oil sketches by Rubens, Dutch painting of the 17th century, represented by Rembrandt to Ruisdael and De Hooch, and works of Italian, French and Spanish schools by Botticelli, Titian, Murillo, Claude, Tiepolo and Guardi.

The Last Judgement's left panel was "Paradise" and the right panel was named "Hell".  In the left and central panels, human and fantastic figures took their places along side rather decorative figures of god, angels and saints, while the right panel was nothing but figures of grotesqueness, who also occupied the most part of the central panel, representing a post-apocalyptic world being judged by the god sitting above.  Both the left and central panels had orderly hierarchy in the sphere of god and also pleasing and comforting to see, with the lovely pale green and blue palettes, porcelain doll figurines, etc., despite the fact that even in the "paradise", a certain dark undertone was quite visible, represented by the fighting dark clouds and the malevolent chase of Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.

Of course, it was the nightmarish scenes of the damned caught most viewers' imaginations.  The burning landscape, a controlled or organized chaos with many virtuosically weird and somewhat comical figures, was quite intriguing and funny and drew the viewers in with seductive force, until the viewers recognized themselves amongst the tortured and damned and the scenes became unbearably repugnant. No one would forget this most visceral horror.







Many other works were very fine but I'd choose "The Judgement of Paris" by Peter Paul Rubens as my second favorite there.  The topic was always a fascinating one for me, but the reason for this pick was based on its impressive and lucid execution.  I always enjoyed his sketches more than his "finished" paintings, because they revealed much more his personal touches.  The atmosphere here was romantic and highly charged.  Despite the rather idyllic setting, the composed posture of Paris, and the voluptuousness of the three goddesses, the barely hidden menace threatened to swallow everything and everyone.  Lovely and terrible.




My Favorite Museum Collection Series

>> My Favorite Museum Collection Series 39: My Favorite Paintings at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien (Vienna)
<< My Favorite Museum Collection Series 37: My Favorite Sculpture and Painting at Strahov Monastery, Prague

List of My Favorite Artworks in the Museums I've Visited

Art Gallery of Luxun Art Academy in Shenyang, China

When I visited my home city, Shenyang, China, last month, I stopped by Art Gallery of Luxun Art Academy. Unfortunately, it was closed. During my last three visits, only once I was able to see some artwork there.

Most of the galleries and museum in China don't seem to have a consistent hours or curating philosophy. Not a single one of the museums I've visited there ever sold any reproductions of their works. When I visited the National Gallery in Beijing, I found no permanent oil painting collections on display. Such visits were often disappointing.

From the abundant of graffiti on the walls of the Art Gallery of Luxun Art Academy, I guessed that it had not been operating for a long time. The graffiti are not interesting. However, a group of insolent young people in front of them were intriguing. They were making some strange fighting poses and one of them was busying shooting videos of themselves and the graffiti.

That turned out to be the only art experience of this visit to my home city, which has never been known as art mecca anyway.















Note: Lu Xun (September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936) is one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century and had introduced Käthe Kollwitz into China.