Viennese Museums: Albertina and Leopold

Vienna is known for its culture: architecture, music, painting, urbanism. In fact, I can without exaggerating say that I decided to study art history because I fell in love with Vienna on my first visit: Baroque palaces, Gustav Klimt's paintings, Otto Wagner's architecture, Hundertwasser's imagination, the museums. And when it comes to museums, the selection is so varied that it's hard to choose which ones are going to fit in your busy traveler's schedule. In my case, I always know that Albertina is going to be on the list- it is an institution really, with one of the biggest prints and drawings collections in the world, a nice permanent loan collection of Impressionists and 20th century art and amazing temporary exhibitions. This time it was Pointillism, one of my favorite painting styles.

Ways of Pointillism exhibition

We came to Albertina first thing in the morning on our second day in Vienna- it was so cold that only a short walk on the main streets of Graben and Kartner Strasse was an option; we were eager to enjoy a nice morning surrounded by art and warmth. Albertina collections and temporary exhibitions are definitely overwhelming to see in only one day- we focused on Ways of Pointillism, The Colour Woodcut in Vienna around 1900 (both temporary exhibitions) and the permanent collection Monet to Picasso. Before I explain why did I love the Pointillism exhibiton so much, just a few words about the style itself. It was derived from Impressionism, but also marked the end of it. It challenged it in a way that where Impressionists painted with little brush strokes, Pointillists used little dots of paint, and where Impressionists painted spontaineously out in the nature, Poinitillists painted in the studio while studying the optics and the use of colour. Curator Heinz Widauer explained it far better than I did in this short video. 

Ways of Pointillism exhibition

Henri Edmond Cross: Provence Landscape, Ways of Pointillism exhibition

I loved the presentation of Pointillism: first of all, the selection of paintings was impressive; there were canvases from Seaurat, Signac, Monet, van Rysselberghe, just to name a few. Second of all: I've never thought of some of the included artists as Poentillists, and yet they did use the technique, like Van Gogh, Mattisse and Piccasso. Third, the presentation was beatiful: the colour of the walls resembled main tones of the paintings (purple, rose), the lights were dim and directed to the paintings in the way that they shined like jewels in the shadowy rooms. I think that we managed to capture the atmosphere on our photos, at least a bit. 

Ways of Pointillism exhibition

We proceeded to The colour woodcut in Vienna around 1900 exhibition, which was chic in design with its lapis lazuli coloured walls and amazing graphics from prominent Viennese Secession artists. Woodcut rose to fame in Europe at the end of the 19th century (after a period of stagnation), inspired by amazing Japanese woodprints which used unusal perspectives, and were definitely ahead of time compared to then European painting. Viennese woodcuts are defined by stylised motifs, square format (Secessionists strived for the clarity of form) and contrasting hues. Amazing exhibition, I wish we had more time for it, but the good news is that all of the exhibited pieces are from Albertina's own collection!

Permanent collection is a must if you're into late 19th and 20th century art (and I mean, who isn't?), and it keeps expanding all the way to contemporary art. There is everything you might want to see- from Monet's Water Lillies to crazy Picasso's ceramic. (How cool is his depiction of a nun being chased by the devil depicted on the photos below?) Also, the collection is not overwhelming and it might be a perfect dose of art for a culturally spent morning!

Colour woodcut in Vienna around 1900 exhibition

Permanent collection, Albertina

The next day we visited Leopold Museum in MuseumsQuartier, a very cool cultural area in the center of Vienna, which hosts about 70 cultular facilites, cafes and shops. The museums are located inside of a number of courtyards, there is no traffic and esentially it feels like a small city inside of the city. Leopold Museum hosts the biggest Egon Schiele collection, as well as other prominent Viennese artists such as Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoscka and Koloman Moser. I have always been impressed with Secessionist movement and Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna's Workshops) that proceded from it, so I was thrilled to see not only the Secessionist paintings and magazine design but also furniture, jewelry and design objects by Wiener Werkstatte. It is a complete collection of Viennese turn of the century art, and I wholeheartedly recommend you to visit if you are interested in Art Nouveau (Secession is a sort of its Austrian form).

MuseumsQuartier courtyard

Wiener Werkstatte displays in Leopold Museum

Viennese Secession at Leopold Museum

Egon Schiele exhibition at Leopold Museum

The museum is also home to largest Egon Schiele collection in the world, and there is a current exhibiton of his works taking place at the moment. I say current, because some of the works like watercolors, drawings and prints are photosensitive and cannot be exhibited all the time (they are usually being kept at museum's depos). If you're going to Vienna any time soon, I suggest you to take this opportunity and see the exhibition- apart from the Egon Schiele's amazing works, the presentation itself is special, with its contrasting dark interior and flashing rays of light directed into the paintings. It's a dramatic atmoshpere, for sure.

The architecture of the museum itself is interesting as well- a bright cube made out of limestone from the outside with unexpected vistas inside of the museum and breathtaking views of the city center and MuseumsQuartier courtyard from above. We did spend quite some time marveling at the sunset reflected on the dome of the Museum of Art History on the other side of the Ringstrasse (Vienna Ring Road). And after an afternoon spent in the museum, why not have a drink in one of the cool bars inside the Quartier?

MuseumsQuartier courtyard with a view of Leopold Museum

Views from Leopold Museum: Museum of Art History

Museum of Art History, view from the Leopold Museum

Christmas market in MuseumsQuartier

This article was made possible thanks to Vienna Tourist Board, Albertina Museum and Leopold Museum, and I thank them for that. We had a truly amazing cultural experience in Vienna. There is still so much to see the next time. 

Have you ever been to Vienna? Curious to hear about your favorite cultural spots (or they don't even have to be cultural, I'm basically interested in everything Vienna-related). :) 

Any thoughts on this mostly art-concentrated post? Yes, no?

Let me know!

A place to return to: Antwerp

We visited Antwerp twice during the course of the last year. We loved it so much that we started picturing ourselves living there: morning runs in the Middleheim park, weekly dinners at our favorite restaurant, bike rides to work- stuff like that. We wanted to spend more time there, to feel the vibe of the city, hence our twice-in-a-year score. Our first visit to Antwerp in October last year was kind of improvised- we wanted to get away for a couple of days, found a flight from Pula to Brussels and decided to make a little road trip out of it, which included Brussels, Antwerp, Utrecht and Waterloo.

We did have some trouble finding the apartment in Antwerp, as everything nice and affordable was apparently booked, but we decided to stretch our budget a bit on behalf of comfort. We ended up in amazing town house, so beautifully decorated that it would fit perfecly the pages of some interior design magazine, with luxurious room and a view of the neighbouring forest park. Our hosts were a source of usefull information about the city and served the tastiest breakfast in their classy dining room (think arguably the best croissants in Antwerp, a selection of tasty jams and juices and inevitable pot of tea). 

The house was close enough to the city center that we parked our car in front of the house and didn't use it again till the day of our departure. With Antwerp city bikes (called Velo bikes), the car was unnecessary. There are bike stations literally on every corner of the city, and for 3.80 Euros a day, you got your transportation in Antwerp covered. There is an organized network of bike lanes and cyclists definitely have a priviledged status in the city transport system. From the area we covered with bikes, it seemed that you can be anywhere in the city within 20 minutes ride. 

Our hosts offered suggestions on what to visit, and the crown jewel of their recommendations (and Antwerp as a whole) was the Middleheim park. Situated on the outskirts of the central Antwerp, it functions both as a park and one of the oldest open air museums in the world. We were taken there by our host on a foggy October morning, which made the first impression to be even more enchanting than it might have been on a sunny day. As we walked trough the park, unexpected views kept opening in front of us: there were Rodin's Honore Balsac, Juan Munoz's figures trapped on the trees, Giacomo Manzu's Cardinal, just to name a few. Then there were contemporary instalations and sculptures which left us in awe: Honore d'O's Shouting is breathing (a giant network of wires and motors that makes the tree braches vibrate), Antony Gormley's Firmament III (a three dimensional net of stainless steel), Erwin Wurm's Misconceivable (a bended sailingboat which deviates subtly from the reality)... All in all, a morning spent there was not enough. So we went another day with our Velo bikes, and enjoyed art while cycling (sounds familiar?). If you find yourself in or around Antwerp, take some time to visit this park. It will pay off, and not just because the entrance is free of charge. :)

Juan Munoz's figure

Giacomo Manu's Cardinal

Anthony Gormley's Firmament III

Antwerp is loaded with museums, and we got to see a couple of them the first time we visited. The Plantin-Moretus museum ranked as one of the most important Antwerp museums, so we decided to pay it a visit. Once the first industrial printing house in the world (founded in 1555), now it hosts a collection of oldest printing presses in the world, typographic material, art, books, and also period rooms with Rubens's artwork. It was protected by Unesco in 2005, and completely renovated in 2016. 

Except for the museums, strolling around the city and admiring its architecture is worth a day of sightseeing. Grote Markt (the main square) reminiscents medieval times, with its medieval guildhalls and a town hall which is one of the first examples of Renaissance architecture in the Low Countries. A couple of minutes walk from the Grote Markt is a hidden 16th century alley called Vlaeykensgang- once a place where shoemakers and the poorest city dwellers lived, now a hip secluded street with restaurants and shops in a medieval atmosphere.

One of the unmissable stops in Antwerp is its Central Train Station, built in 1905 in eclectic turn-of-the-century style. Our first glimpse of it was by night, which made it even more magical- we marvelled at the lighting on the red steel construction, and the recently built levels below the ground where trains kept coming and going. We visited it by day as well, just to see what daily light brings to its glass and steel construction.

One morning before breakfast, our host offered to take us to see the Cogels-Osylei street, famous for its grand turn-of-the-century houses. He drove us around, showed us the street, and while he went to grab those delicious croissants for breakfast, we had some time to admire and photograph the houses. Photos don't do them justice, especially not on a cloudy day like we had, but there were some seriously interesting (and romantic!) round windows, golden sunflowers, representations of seasons of the year, mosaics and entire flow of refined ornaments for which the peirod is known for.

Cogels-Osylei street

It wouldn't be a complete post about Antwerp if I hadn't mention how amazing the food is there. I've heard before opinions on Belgian food to be boring and tasteless, which was so off according to our experience. We got hooked on waffles, stews, beer (that's food as well, right?), mussels, frites, all traditional Belgian, but also on falafel, burgers, fish and chips... A place called Falafel Tof got us excited about vegetarian dishes- tasty and colorful vegetable sides, crispy potatoes with sauces and falafel of course. A place called Brutal got us excited about Thai Boulabaise, burgers, stew and the best yoghurt, clementines, crumble and mint desert. And a place called Bia Mara got us excited about proper British fish and chips with tasty dips (think truffles with mayonaisse). We loved the diversity of diferent cuisines, reflecting diversity among Belgians, a thing not that common back at home.

In those three days we got to know the city pretty well, thanks to the fact that we cycled to almost all of the places we wanted to see. We decided we'll be back, and so we were, about half a year later. In one of my next posts, I'll write about our second visit to Antwerp.

Have you ever been to Antwerp? Or plan to visit? I would really love to read some thoughts or tips on this amazing city.