Hard to imagine photography as art-free these days. Yet it was not always so. The Albertina Modern looks at the period around 1900 in Vienna through the lens of pictorialism: the movement to give photography a similar standing to fine art.
- Evocative photos of a time and cause
- Many photos echo painting styles
- Runs Feb 3 – April 23, 2023
- Book Albertina Modern tickets* online
- See also:
- Albertina Modern overview
- Photo exhibitions in Vienna
Photo art around 1900
(Heinrich Kühn, Der Sonnenschirm, 1912; autochrome; press image courtesy of and © ALBERTINA, Wien)
Art, design, and other areas of cultural and/or intellectual endeavour saw an explosion of creativity in Vienna around 1900. Exhibitions around this Wiener Moderne era tend to focus on art (cough, the Secession) and design (cough, the Wiener Werkstätte).
As such, the Albertina Modern fills a gap with an exhibition on Pictorialism, a movement that treated the camera as canvas and sought to give photography its place in a landscape of innovation and artistic progress.
Pictorialist groups sprang up around the world (e.g. the Linked Ring in the UK), promoting the artistic influence in, for example, the aesthetics of what is seen through the lens.
For some members, pictorialism also meant treating the photo much like a painting; the photographs (or photographic production processes) might create impressionist, expressionist or secessionist outcomes.
Given the times, Vienna inevitably had its pictorialist practitioners too, who participated in an international network of similarly-minded groups and individuals. They also shared intellectual space with the progressive art emerging through, for example, Klimt and contemporaries.
As a movement, pictorialism petered out after the 1920s, but the exhibition offers insights into the work produced by its adherents, who included many wealthy amateurs.
In 1896, for example, Baron Albert Rothschild gave an informal talk on colour technologies to the Wiener Camera Klub (described at the time as an artistic association of amateur photographers).
So we see photographs by the likes of Heinrich Kühn, one of the three members of the short lived Wiener Kleeblatt association of artists (which has been described as a kind of photographic Secession).
Or Anton Josef Trcka, who also painted; he was much admired by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. A Trcka portrait of the latter is in the Met Museum’s collection of photographs.
Or Rudolf Koppitz, whose 1926 Bewegungsstudie (translation: a study in movement) photograph features in the exhibition and even appears in the display of iconic photos from around the world at the newly-opened parliament building.
I’ll add more details when I’ve had the chance to visit.
Dates, tickets & tips
Enjoy this excerpt from photographic art history from February 3rd to April 23rd, 2023. Any ticket from or for the Albertina Modern includes access to the exhibition.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
Pictorialism is the Albertina Modern’s only exhibition until Warhol to Hirst begins later in February.
Photography is just one of many areas touched by the innovations of the Wiener Moderne. Top locations in Vienna for a deeper dive into that era include Upper Belvedere (the permanent art exhibition), the MAK (notably design), and the Leopold Museum (mostly painting and design).
And for more historical photography, consider a trip to Westlicht, which has a small camera museum within.
How to get to the exhibition
Follow the suggestions on the main Albertina Modern page.
Address: Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna
(Article icon courtesy of the Met Museum.)