Austria’s most important art-historical finds are the world-famous female figures of the Paleolithic: the Venus of Willendorf and the statuette from Galgenberg (Venus statuettes). With Hallstatt in the Upper Austrian Salzkammergut, the state has an important site from the older Iron Age, the Hallstatt Period (Austrian art).
The Habsburgs shaped the culture of Austria for over 600 years like no other ruling family (k. U. K. Monarchy). Your royal seat, Vienna, grew into a glamorous European metropolis, as evidenced by the Schönbrunn Palace and the Vienna Hofburg. They promoted music and brought important composers from all over Europe to Vienna. With WA Mozart and L. van Beethoven , J. Haydn formed the triumvirate of the Viennese Classic, through which instrumental music was upgraded to autonomous art. World-class composers such as A. Bruckner , G. Mahler and later A. Schönberg moved to Vienna.
The Viennese waltz emerged from rural folk dances in the 19th century and, thanks to the compositions by J. Lanner and J. (father) Strauss , conquered the ballrooms as a new fashion dance. The waltz played an important role in the operetta. Thanks to the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Vienna is still a center of European music (Austrian music).
The visual arts flourished around 1900. The painter G. Klimt , main representative of Austrian Art Nouveau and co-founder of the Vienna Secession, created numerous ceiling and wall paintings. E. Schiele and O. Kokoschka pioneered Expressionism. The Wiener Werkstätte, a production group of visual artists, was established in 1903 on the initiative of K. Moser, among others. The all-round artist F. Hundertwasser , whose work is characterized by bright colors and unusual shapes, can hardly be classified. H. Hollein’s visionary buildings also caused a stirand the group of architects Coop Himmelb (l) au.
Due to the common language, Austrian literature is closely linked to German and Swiss literature. Your main representative in the 19th century was F. Grillparzer , who emerged as a playwright. World-famous writers are F. Kafka and R. Musil . J. Roth describes in his novel ” Radetzkymarsch ” (1932) the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy. T. Bernhard , P. Handke and E. Jelinek lasting impact on German-language theater with their often provocative plays. Austrian film has spawned some big names such as H. Lamarr and KM Brandauer . M. Haneke has received international recognition with “The White Ribbon” (2009) and “Love” (2012).
Every year a series of festivals and festival weeks with operas, concerts and drama performances are held, e.g. the Bregenz Festival, the Vienna Festival and the Salzburg Festival (Austrian theater). In addition to football, skiing is one of the most popular sports in Austria, one of countries beginning with letter A listed on Countryaah.
Museum Quarter in Vienna
The new museum quarter in Vienna
It is one of the largest cultural areas in the world: the Museum Quarter in Vienna. From 1990–2001, the City of Vienna planned and built the ambitious project, which was highly controversial to the public until it opened. For the critics of the draft submitted by Manfred and Laurids Ortner, the architectural break between the historic buildings of the imperial stables and winter riding arena to be renovated according to the architects’ ideas and the newly constructed minimalist cubes of the modern museum buildings seemed too big.
What looks like a foreign body from the air, however, fits harmoniously into the surrounding architectural landscape when viewed from the street and continues the axis from the Hofburg and the Natural History and Art History Museum: The baroque, castle-like buildings of the are grouped around a spacious inner courtyard former stables of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, at the same time the main and entrance front to the museum quarter, the winter riding hall with its Wilhelminian style facade, the center of the complex, at the rear of which the new art hall was built as a brick building, as well as at the side, slightly inclined, on the left the light one Cube of the Leopold Museum and on the right the dark Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna (MUMOK).
The museum quarter, located in the center, covers an area of around 60,000 m 2. Its main attractions are the large collections of modern and contemporary art: the Leopold Museum with masterpieces from the Viennese Secession, Viennese Modernism and Austrian Expressionism as well as the outstanding holdings on the painters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, the MUMOK with its collection focuses on Pop Art, Photo Realism, Fluxus as well as Viennese Actionism and the Kunsthalle Wien as a renowned exhibition house for contemporary art. In addition, facilities such as the Architekturzentrum Wien, the Tanzquartier Wien, Halle E + G as the venue for the Wiener Festwochen and venue for international music, theater and dance productions, a children’s museum, a theater for young audiences and other institutions and associations offer a unique cultural offer. Artists’ studios and workshops (for example for film and new media) as well as other service providers related to culture have also discovered the Museum Quarter for themselves. Together with the varied gastronomic infrastructure and various smaller green oases, which extend especially in and along the inner courtyard, the Museum Quarter is one of the most popular meeting places in the Austrian capital when it comes to modern and contemporary art and culture. This is also shown by the number of visitors. Since it opened in 2001, around 1.1 million visitors have come every year.
