"Monet to Picasso" in Albertina, Vienna

Image source: albertina.at

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I finally visited Albertina. I’ve been studying in Vienna for three and a half years and I can’t believe I’d never been to its most famous gallery before. Of course, I was mostly interested in the exhibition of impressionists’ works, as it’s my favourite style of painting. (When I was in Paris with my family, I forced everyone to go to Musée d’Orsay, which probably bored my dad to death while I was having the time of my life.)

We started our tour in the imperial state rooms, which are decorated with antique furniture and grand chandeliers.  There are sculptures of Greek Muses and beautiful drawings by Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens and Dürer, whose Hare became Albertina’s mascot.

Image source: albertina.at

On the second floor, the Monet to Picasso exhibition takes you from Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond to Picasso’s women of…unconventional beauty. There’s even a quote saying something along the lines of “If all women looked like Picasso’s paintings, humans would become extinct in a few years’ time”.

You can also enjoy this exhibition with a fun technological twist: an app made especially for Albertina lets you see the paintings in a different way. Just download it (for free, of course) and look at the art works through the camera of your phone. It will transform Monet’s painting into a real-life lake with water lilies or play you a video, showing the process of painting the masterpieces of Degas, Cézanne or Modigliani. As my experience with art begins and ends with compulsory art lessons at school, I’ve never realized what it takes to create a whole painting using a special technique, such as pointillism (painting dot by dot). Now I know and it made me appreciate art even more.

If you’re planning a trip to Vienna, I definitely recommend Albertina with its collection of art pieces from all over the world, including works of the famous Austrian painters Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. Right now, you can also see two temporary exhibitions: The Art of the Viennese Watercolour and Keith Haring’s The Alphabet. I'm sure I'll come back to Albertina really soon, but I’m already looking forward to another exhibition: Helena Rubinstein. Pioneer of Beauty at the Jewish Museum in Vienna.

Love,

Bella