Visiting the Belvedere and Dinner by the Danube

Friday June 14 was another fine day.  We headed out to the Belvedere Museum.  Along the way, we stopped at Schwarzenbergplatz to look at the giant bronze Russen Heldendkmal (Russian Memorial) erected in 1945.  It weighs 15 tons and was made out of hundreds of melted-down busts of Hitler.

Schwartzenbergplatz and Russian Memorial

Top of Memorial with shield with hammer and sickle

We then went to the Belvedere museums and gardens which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The palaces have been a museum since 1903.  We first started in the Unteres (Lower) Belvedere which was one of the summer homes of Prince Eugene of Savoy built in 1712-16.  The "Conversation Room" pictured below was full of gilt and other baroque details.

The Conversation Room

Beside the Lower Belvedere Palace is the Orangerie, which was beautifully renovated in 2006.  We went to see a wonderful exhibit entitled Hundertwasser, Japan and the Avant-Garde.  I remember that Hundertwasser's work was very popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s when I went to university.  Lots of folks had posters of his work.  The exhibit focussed on his early paintings and the influence of Japanese art.  Hundertwasser had gone to Japan early in his career and had a successful exhibit in Tokyo in 1961.  The Belvedere  exhibit also featured some of his contemporaries who were also influenced by Japanese art.

I didn't really know very much about Hundertwasser, but he had a fascinating life.  He was born in Vienna in1928 as Friedrich Stowasser.  His father, Ernst, died when he was a year old.  His mother, Elsa,was Jewish.  Sixty-nine of his mother's relatives, including an aunt and grandmother were murdered by the Nazis in 1943.  In 1949, Friedrich changed his last name to Hundertwasser and in 1961 changed his first name to Friedensreich (he had translated his first name Friedrich into the Japanese characters for "peace" and "realm" and then created his new first name of Friedensreich).  He lived in Paris for a while in the 1950s and met many of the avant-garde artists living there. Hundertwasser died of a heart attack aboard the Queen Elizabeth II in 2000.

Entrance to the exhibit

The exhibit was organized into the themes of Architecture, Garden, Japan, The Line, Journey-Way-Process, and Freedom and Abstraction.  Hundertwasser did not believe in the straight line and many of his works incorporate a spiral design.  He famously said " the straight line leads to the downfall of humanity."

I was only able to take a few pictures, so had to find others from the exhibit on the internet.

The Egg as Ancient Pre Columbian Japan 1957

Die Stadt 1953 (The City)

Spiral of Tears with Kito in the Corner 1962 (painted with artist Akira Kito)

Hundertwasser often did performance art.  He walked around Tokyo in 1961 with his painting the First Spiral.

Hundertwasser with the picture of the First Spiral in Tokyo in 1961

The Big Way- 1955

Alain and I really enjoyed the exhibit--it was great to learn a lot more about an artist and to understand the influences of his vision.

We then walked through the Belvedere gardens to the Upper Belvedere Palace, passing a row of sculptures depicting the months of the year.

June

The Oberes (Upper) Belvedere Palace, another of Prince Eugene's baroque summer homes,  houses the Austrian Gallery, which contains art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day.  The draw is the triumvirate of Klimt, Shiele and Kokoschka. The Austrian Gallery still has the world's largest collection of Klimt paintings.  The Kiss (1907-08) and Judith (1901) are found in the gallery.  There are also some excellent works by Shiele.

Outside of the Upper Belvedere Palace

Judith

Klimt

Shiele- Death and the Maiden

We walked back to our neighbourhood, passing many beautiful apartment buildings.

Beautiful apartment building on Prinz-Eugen-Strasse near the Belvedere

We then walked back to our neighbourhood and went for a coffee at Cafe Drechsler.  We first stopped at the Wagner Apartments, designed by pioneering architect Otto Wagner in 1899.  The first is called the Jugendstil Majolikahaus, due to the majolica tiles Wagner used to create the floral patterns covering the exterior.  It's neighbour's curvaceous facade is further embellished with gold embossing by Secessionist artist Koloman Moser.  

Jugendstil Majolikafaus

Detail of the two adjoining apartment buildings

Gold embellishment

We went to dinner with my old high school friend Ariella and her husband Tony.  They took us to Gasthaus Birner, located on the Danube.  It was a lovely spot right on the river.  There is a swimming area across from the restaurant which is very popular in the summer.   The restaurant opened in the 1930s and is still going strong.

We sat right by the water-- Gasthaus Birner

Dinner was typical Austrian food---heavy, but tasty.

I had a giant dumpling with salad

Tony with turkey dinner

Ariella had fish

Alain had meat with fired onions and potatos

Tony with ice-cream dessert (very popular in Vienna)

We sat and chatted for a while--lovely evening as it stayed warm until quite late. Again, I finished this post of our Friday activities on Saturday morning.