KHM Jahresbericht 2012 - Presse - Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

KHM, MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY
AND AUSTRIAN THEATRE
MUSEUM, 2012
English
Summary
Gustav Klimt was without a doubt the “man of the
year” of 2012. For his 150 th birthday, many Vienna
museums organized exhibitions honouring this
great artist of the Ringstrasse period. The Kunsthistorisches
Museum and the Austrian Theatre
Museum each presented a special exhibit; as a
particular attraction, we constructed a “Klimt
Bridge” in the grand staircase of the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, which was positively stormed by
the public. For the first time since their creation,
it was possible to view the spandrel paintings in
the staircase produced by Gustav Klimt and his
painters’ company at close proximity. Due to its
enormous success, this bridge remained standing
after the end of the Klimt show, until the beginning
of 2013.
2012 also saw a profusion of exhibition activities
within the consortium of museums and abroad.
The successful Winter Tales exhibit went to the
Kunsthaus Zurich in February 2012, and the
Vienna Kunstkammer was presented through a
representative selection of works in the Reiss-
Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim from late February
2012. The two-month loan of the helmet and
sword of the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg
from the Collection of Arms and Armour to the
National Museum in Tirana was of cultural and
political significance. Minister Claudia Schmied
and Vice-Chancellor Spindelegger conducted the
opening of the exhibition at the end of November
2012. In Ambras Castle, Kunstkammer objects
from the Green Vault in Dresden were shown from
July 13 th in a magnificent special exhibition.
Early in 2012, we started a very successful series
of artists’ talks in the domed atrium of the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, whose glittering launch
featured the U.S. artist Jeff Koons. Talks with
Martin Gayford, Nan Goldin, Ugo Rondinone, Kris
Martin, Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner and Bice
Curiger followed. From April 2012, the renovated
Theseus temple in the Volksgarten was the site of a
Contemporary Program, which has been extremely
well received. By fall 2012, 90,000 visitors had
seen these exhibitions.
In the Paintings Gallery, continued refurbishment
took the form of rehanging of the galleries and reclothing
their walls, together with improvements
to the lighting and the labels. Director Sylvia
Ferino also developed the new exhibition format
Points of View in 2012, which highlights one
artwork from the collection four times per year.
In the Collection of Arms and Armour, the Society
of Friends of the Collection of Arms and Armour
helped to finance the new presentation of an important
group of objects related to the courtly hunt.
A new society of friends was founded in Ambras
Castle.
The structural renovation of the Kunstkammer was
finished in mid-2012, and the reinstallation of the
collection began in the fall. It was possible to
remain completely within the planned budget. The
date for the opening of the Kunstkammer was
fixed for 28 February 2013, through a so-called
soft-opening already took place on 12.12.2012:
under the motto “first room – first view”, the
Berger Gallery was presented to the public,
providing a first impression of the spectacular
restoration of this collection.
It should not go unmentioned that the Kunsthistorisches
Museum has participated in the Google
Art Project from 2012, enabling a greatest possible
number of people to share in the holdings of our
museums.
From 1 May 2012, the Museum of Ethnology has
Steven Engelsman as its new director, who will
oversee the successful restarting of the museum
and the complete reopening of this great collection
by 2016. Since a loan of the ancient Mexican feather
headdress (“Penacho”) to Mexico is not possible
for reasons of preservation, as a multiyear Austrian-
Mexican research project concluded, we wanted
to no longer withhold this important object from
the public, and have commissioned the architect
Adolf Krischanitz to create a suitable presentation
in the Museum of Ethnology. This impressive
object can be seen again at Heldenplatz from mid-
November 2012, in a scholarly presentation
accompanied by documentation.
The Austrian Theatre Museum presented two
highly successful exhibitions in 2012: one on the
phenomenon of operetta, in cooperation with
the German Theatre Museum in Munich, and
another on the architect and theatre visionary
Frederick Kiesler, organized in collaboration with
the Villa Stuck and with La Casa Encendida in
Madrid.
In 2012, the Kunsthistorisches Museum com pleted
an important brand strategy and rebranding process,
to be reflected in a new appearance of the
three museums starting in 2013 and a new corporate
design.
In all, 2012 was a well-attended and economically
successful year.
KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM
Notable Activities
EGYPTIAN AND NEAR EASTERN
COLLECTION
The comprehensive revision of the inventories of
the Egyptian and Near Eastern collection begun
in 2011 was continued in 2102. Around 15,000
working photos were taken in the course of
verifying the object locations. In addition, it was
discovered that the still uninventoried objects consisted
largely of unpublished material from the
excavations of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
during the early 20 th century and finds from the
1960s-1980s from the excavations of the Austrian
Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the University
of Vienna. This material is of great scholarly
import. The inventarisation in the course of the
general revision forms an important basis for scholarly
study.
COLLECTION OF GREEK AND ROMAN
ANTIQUITIES
In cooperation with the conservation department
of the J. Paul Getty Museum, a study was prepared
on the potential restoration of the bronze statue
of an athlete from Ephesus (Inv.-Nr. VI 3168). The
statue, which had been found in 234 pieces in 1896
at the beginning of the Austrian excavations in
Ephesus, was restored in Vienna at the time and
already exhibited by the turn of the century. The
discovery of a bronze statue of the same type in
Croatia about fifteen years ago has especially
drawn renewed interest to this statue.
A series of scholarly lectures was offered within
the event program accompanying the exhibition
Gods in Colour. Researchers from Austria and Germany
were invited, who addressed the subject of
the polychromy of antique sculpture.
COLLECTION OF SCULPTURE AND
DECORATIVE ARTS (KUNSTKAMMER),
SECULAR AND ECCLESIASTICAL
TREASURIES
In connection with the preparations for the r e-
opening of the Kunstkammer in 2013, work took
place on numerous details of the exhibition design:
decisions were made on the wall colours and the
fabrics for the exhibit cases, the design of the
benches as related to the attached iPads could be
finalized, and important decisions were reached
on the form and materials of the new stone bases
to be made and on the graphic design (with regard
to font and size, position, text length, etc.). Fol-
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