Vienna Berlin. The Art of Two Cities. Author: Elinor Hamilton. Download PDF. Recommend Documents. The Tale of Two Cities. Two fires and two landscapes a tale of two cities. Vienna art and modernity at the turn of two centuries. A Tale of Two Cities. Compiled and Edited by. Alexander Thomas, Beruflich in Russland. The Daily Show. Art - Two-Dimensional. Edited by. State of the Art Report. In the period just before the turn of the century until roughly , a particularly lively artistic exchange appeared between the two cities.
Especially during the years of so-called classical modernism, from the Jugendstil movement via expressionism and up to New Objectivity, a vital and fruitful dialogue took place between Vienna and Berlin that embraced all aspects of cultural life. These relationships between the two cities—which have since been thoroughly investigated in the fields of literary studies, theater studies, and musicology— have been the subject of art historical attention only in the form of individual biographical studies.
This exhibition, in contrast, offers a thorough overview of the artistic and pictorial realm and the connections that can be encountered there. A particular concern is making the commonalities and the interactions, as well as the different artistic approaches, discernible in the survey.
The art of the two cities not only offers a picture of cultural diversity, but today is also considered symbolic of their different specific characters. The Berlinische Galerie in turn had already taken up a similar theme in its exhibition Berlin—Moscow — and elucidated the reciprocal influences and interactions between Russian and German artists. The present cooperative project addresses the reception of the cultural transfer from Vienna to Berlin and vice versa and, most importantly, illumi- 9 nates it critically.
Both museums want the exhibition not only to expand the picture of the artistic connections between the two cities but also to define them more precisely. For example, the classification of Emil Orlik, who was born in Prague, as a Berlin academy professor or a Vienna secessionist, or the characterization of Oskar Kokoschka as a German or an Austrian expressionist, demands closer scrutiny.
