Best arty things to do in Vienna this winter

Vienna Art Week 2018

For one week in November the art cognoscenti descend on Vienna for Vienna Art Week (19 - 25 Nov). It's a chance for the Austrian capital to showcase its cultural heritage, as well as its vibrant contemporary art scene.

This year the Vienna Art Week programme, comprising more than 200 events including talks, tours, studio visits and exhibitions, from no less than 70 program partners, takes 'Promising Paradise' as it's uniting theme. Artistic Director Robert Punkenhofer says of this year’s concept: 'We examine how art deals with the myth-enshrouded concept of paradise and take a look at images associated with paradise as a non-place that often only seems to exist by virtue of its absence'.

There is also the much-loved Open Studio Day to look forward to. In celebration of Vienna Art Week, more than 60 contemporary artists working in the city throw open their studios to the public. This annual initiative offers locals and tourists alike an unparalleled opportunity to see behind the scenes and better understand the creative process of many of Vienna’s emerging artists.

There is so much to see, do and attend during Vienna Art Week that it is well worth planning in advance. Many of the events are free to attend, so we recommend you pack in as much as you can!

Dorotheum, Post-War & Contemporary Auctions

The oldest auction house in Europe has been splashed all over the news in recent weeks, following the sale of Artemisia Gentieschi's Lucretia, for a staggering €1.8M. The hammer price was a record high for this well-deserving but long-overlooked Italian Baroque female artist.

But the Viennese saleroom, palatial in size and grandeur, is not just a global hub for Old Master paintings. It also hosts sales (online and on site) across the major collecting specialisms. The focus of Dorotheum’s auctions on show during Vienna Art Week will be modern and contemporary art. Offering more than 500 works, the Post-War and Contemporary Sale reaffirms the House's internationally renowned reputation in the field. Highlight lots include: a large-sized composition Integration oval, 1958, in black and white, an important early painting by German avant-garde artist Carla Accardi (€ 160,000 – 240,000); and Blasse Hockende (Pale Crouching Female Figure), 1972, by the pioneering Austrian avant-garde artists Maria Lassnig, whose solo exhibition at Sotheby's S2 gallery in 2017 was a roaring success.

Although Dorotheum's global hub is in Vienna, the auction house has satellite offices all over Europe, and its London outpost frequently hosts previews of the top lots of all its major auctions. But if you can't face bidding in person, keep an eye on Dorotheum's diverse array of online sales. Price point is more accessible and there's always possibility of a bargain!

Once in a Lifetime: Pieter Bruegel, Kunsthistorisches Museum

In celebration of the 450th anniversary of the death of Dutch Renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has staged the world's first monograph exhibition of the artist. This 'miracle' exhibition, which comprises rare and extremely fragile loans from private and public collections around the world, displays about half of all the known works by Bruegel the Elder; about forty paintings, sixty drawings and eighty prints can be attributed to him today.

Renowned for his landscapes, biblical paintings and detailed peasant scenes, Bruegel is today regarded as one of art history's first social documentarians. Thanks to a number of Habsburg collectors and connoisseurs in the region, the Kunsthistorisches Museum houses the largest collection of paintings by the artist in the world; Vienna, notes the museum's curator, is therefore as an ideal location for such a prestigious and significant show.

It is extremely unlikely that Bruegel's works will be reunited again anytime soon, so this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition truly does merit a trip to Vienna in itself!

Image Detail: Bruegel’s Dulle Griet (around 1562) has been restored especially for the show. © Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp, Belgium

Olafur Eliasson: Yellow Light Spectacle

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is one of the most prominent contemporary artists working today. His installations, spanning sculpture, painting, architecture, photography and film, play with elemental materials and immerse viewers in 'other-worldly' experiences. Since he stunned audiences at Tate Modern in 2003 with his The Weather Project – the dazzling artificial sun installation suspended in a mist-filled Turbine Hall at Tate Modern – Eliasson has represented Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale, designed the Serpentine Pavilion (in 2007), more recently, showcased his phenomenal light installation Room for one colour in the National Gallery's Monochrome exhibition, and is preparing for a monumental Tate Modern retrospective in January 2019.

In the meantime, you can see Eliasson's impressive work Yellow Fog - shown for the first time in New York in 1998 - on permanent display in Vienna. Every day for one hour at sundown, the 48-meter-long facade of the Verbund-Gebäudes at the historic Am Hof square serves as artistic canvas. During this hour, the facade is illuminated by yellow light, cast from 32 fluroscent lamps, and subsumed in fog which is blasted every three minutes for a duration of 40 seconds. This breathtaking light installation transforms the historic building into a magical haze. One not to be missed.

Rachel Whiteread, Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial

Rachel Whiteread's austere, nameless tribute to victims of nazicism in the heart of Vienna is one of Europe's most visited and poignant war memorials. Located in Judenplatz, Nameless Library commemorates the Austrian victims of the Holocaust.

The site-specific memorial is made out of steel and concrete, with a facade of cast library shelves turned inside out. The spines of the books are not visible; the content of each book remains a mystery. The metaphor is strikingly simple. Unveiled in 2000, this brutal construction serves as fitting reminder to the horrors endured by so many individuals now so often united as one.

Back in London at the Royal Academy: Klimt/Schiele: Drawings from the Albertina Museum

But if you can't make it to Vienna this winter, then, here's the good news: a little bit of Vienna has come to London. This winter the Royal Academy, London, celebrates the centenary of the revolutionary Austrian Modernists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele with an exhibition of more than 100 exquisite and rare drawings on display for the first time in the UK, thanks to loans from the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

This bijou exhibition offers an intimate insight into the parallels and differences in both artists' practice and reveals how each enriched the work of the other, while pushing the expressive and erotic possibilities of the line in Art-Nouveau Austria.

Austria’s two most famous artists succeeded in challenging expectation. One hundred years on, this brilliant exhibition shows that they are as radical as ever. Make sure to see it before it goes!