THE PRESENT OF MODERNISM
curator: Susanne Neuburger
MUMOK
Museumsplatz 1 - Wien
14 March 2014 - 8 February 2015
In our new presentation of our collection, The Present of Modernism, mumok will explore the grand utopian project of modernism, and ask as to its current relevance and its potential for future generations. This new arrangement of our permanent collection will focus on a productive investigation of modernism. Aesthetic and formal appropriations are seen in new ways as a transformation of the repertoire of modernism that goes far beyond the mere transfer of modernist forms into self-referential “modernisms.” In this respect, one continuous line through the twentieth century is the reception of Marcel Duchamp, which was highly significant in both Nouveau Réalisme and Fluxus. Duchamp rejected production, and then these later artists responded with countless works dedicated to him.
The Present of Modernism will show our popular collection of classical modernist works in a new arrangement, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, furniture, and architectural models. Photography is particularly significant, as it combines old and new media, and it is well represented in this presentation with works by Karl Blossfeldt and René Magritte. For the first time the mumok is also presenting a focus on Austria within this collection exhibition. This includes drawings by Josef Hoffmann, architectural models by Adolf Loos, and photographs by Dora Kallmus.
Further key themes are architecture and urban life, and design and construction. In her film Empty the Pond To Get the Fish (2008), Runa Islam refers the modernist architecture of the 20er Haus building, where mumok was first opened in 1962 as the Museum of the 20th Century, to selected works from the mumok collection, thus creating a paradigm for the ways in which this collection presentation reexamines modernist art. In a paraphrase of the flâneur, Matthew Buckingham’s A Man of the Crowd (2003) addresses urban experience as a further key modernist theme. In his photographic work Colour Corrected Studio (with Window) (1972–1973), John Baldessari transfers the horizontal and vertical structures so typical of Piet Mondrian into his own studio. This photo series counters the studio’s functionality by holding up a mirror to modernism.
Fernand Léger, Nature morte aux fruits, 1927.
curator: Susanne Neuburger
MUMOK
Museumsplatz 1 - Wien
14 March 2014 - 8 February 2015
In our new presentation of our collection, The Present of Modernism, mumok will explore the grand utopian project of modernism, and ask as to its current relevance and its potential for future generations. This new arrangement of our permanent collection will focus on a productive investigation of modernism. Aesthetic and formal appropriations are seen in new ways as a transformation of the repertoire of modernism that goes far beyond the mere transfer of modernist forms into self-referential “modernisms.” In this respect, one continuous line through the twentieth century is the reception of Marcel Duchamp, which was highly significant in both Nouveau Réalisme and Fluxus. Duchamp rejected production, and then these later artists responded with countless works dedicated to him.
The Present of Modernism will show our popular collection of classical modernist works in a new arrangement, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, furniture, and architectural models. Photography is particularly significant, as it combines old and new media, and it is well represented in this presentation with works by Karl Blossfeldt and René Magritte. For the first time the mumok is also presenting a focus on Austria within this collection exhibition. This includes drawings by Josef Hoffmann, architectural models by Adolf Loos, and photographs by Dora Kallmus.
Further key themes are architecture and urban life, and design and construction. In her film Empty the Pond To Get the Fish (2008), Runa Islam refers the modernist architecture of the 20er Haus building, where mumok was first opened in 1962 as the Museum of the 20th Century, to selected works from the mumok collection, thus creating a paradigm for the ways in which this collection presentation reexamines modernist art. In a paraphrase of the flâneur, Matthew Buckingham’s A Man of the Crowd (2003) addresses urban experience as a further key modernist theme. In his photographic work Colour Corrected Studio (with Window) (1972–1973), John Baldessari transfers the horizontal and vertical structures so typical of Piet Mondrian into his own studio. This photo series counters the studio’s functionality by holding up a mirror to modernism.
Fernand Léger, Nature morte aux fruits, 1927.
