Adventures and Dinosaurs

So it’s my last day in Viena, and it was time to see what the city’s galleries had to offer. Since I have one day and the city has an obscene amount of galleries, I decided to check some modern art.

First on the agenda (after a brief look through the St Stephans cathedral) was the Kunsthaus, an independent gallery (the city’s first) designed by painter, architect and general eccentric renaissance man Hundertwasser.

Unfortunately the exhibition floor was in transition, but the two floors of Hundertwasser retrospective was awesome. Though I found his visual art hit and miss (the hits were amazing, though) his sense of adventure and ideas for society were awesome. His plan for a township that weaves through the landscape was beautiful, and his involvement in flags and postage stamps was at the very least intriguing, and often quite brilliant. The building itself was part of the attraction too, being a bold, unusual construction among an otherwise drab neighbourhood. With grass on the roofing and uneven tiled floors, it was a bit of an experience.

After that we walked to the Daube, which was really not worthwhile, had we not run into Vienna’s fairground. While being pretty tame compared with massive theme parks, it was a really nice thing to run into, with plenty of over the top happiness everywhere. It also gave me the chance to be photographed with DINOSAURS. We also went on a ferris wheel from the late 1800s, which was apparently the last thing standing in the entire park after WW2. It was certainly more historic than fun, but worthwhile nonetheless.

Dad opted for a nap so I used the time to check out Austria’s modern art museum, MUMOK. It had a grea retrospective of Cy Twombly, who I wasn’t familiar with, but some of his work was quite staggering. The best part though was a floor dedicated to the graduates of Black Mountain College and related artists, including Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and others.

Now I am having iced tea and using wireless at the maccas near the hotel, so it’s probably time for dinner. Tonight, I think it’s a restaurant that serves hotpots from around the world!