Tips for the weekend

The lockdown in Austria has been gradually coming to an end since Monday. For cultural institutions, too, it will then be »Curtain up!« again - but only for the recovered and vaccinated (2G rule). And so the popular exhibitions can also open, two of which sound quite promising in the provincial capital of Vienna.

If you're looking to immerse yourself in the Austrian cultural landscape again this weekend, consider a visit to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna: it's showing the most comprehensive retrospective to date of Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), a luminary of Viennese modernism. His extravagant interiors and architectural art inspired both his clientele and his students at the Kunstgewerbeschule. Beginning December 15, visitors can view Josef Hoffmann. Fortschritt durch Schönheit (Progress through Beauty), visitors will be able to admire around 1,000 works from almost six decades.

Those who want to continue enjoying the lockdown, which is slowly coming to an end, can then head straight to Vienna's Albertina, just a stone's throw away. There, Michela Ghisetti: Tutto, the first major retrospective of the Italian artist by choice, will open on December 17. She spreads her message of accepting society as a union of diverse individuals extremely memorably with her abstract dab paintings. They are part of her eponymous series of works Tutto, which has been in the making since 2016. The retrospective of Ghisetti's work also focuses on images from the last two pandemic-dominated years.

Also under the 2G rule, museums in Brandenburg may be visited. Here, at Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus, starting tomorrow, December 18, there is a truly rare opportunity to view works from the largest collection of GDR art. And it actually comes from Brazil. The background to this is not that the artists' work was banned during GDR times. They simply did not find any recognition in the former socialist state. It was fortunate that the Brazilian cultural attaché Chagas Freitas saw potential in them when he worked at the Brazilian embassy in East Berlin in the 1980s. Because of his enthusiasm for regional art, he quickly advanced to become one of the most important GDR art collectors. He took his treasures home with him when he returned to Brazil in 1991. Those who are fond of rare GDR art should visit the exhibition Rausch der Bilder. Die Sammlung Chagas Freitas – Kunst aus der DDR und ihre Reise nach Brasilien (The Chagas Freitas Collection - Art from the GDR and its Journey to Brazil).