Arnulf Rainer Museum

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Arnulf Rainer Museum in Baden near Vienna

The Arnulf Rainer Museum is a museum with changing exhibitions at Josefsplatz 5 in the Lower Austrian town of Baden . It is located in the former so-called "Frauenbad", which was built in 1821 in the style of French classicism. In 1973 the bathing business was stopped and the house was used as a national exhibition center. In 2006, the municipality of Baden decided to convert the exhibition center into a museum and dedicate it to the contemporary Austrian painter and native of Baden Arnulf Rainer . After an adaptation of around 2 million euros, the museum was opened in September 2009.

Planning and construction

In 2006 the decision was made to dedicate the exhibition house in the former Frauenbad on Baden's Josefsplatz as a museum to the Baden-born artist Arnulf Rainer . The Lottersberger-Messner-Dumpelnik team of architects was entrusted with the general planning, whereby the substance of the characteristic building of the women's pool was to remain intact. The renovation work began in January 2009.

museum

The aim of the museum is to give a broad public an insight into the work, which includes painting , drawing , sculpture , prints and photography . At the request of the artist, the museum can be linked with other artists, works of art and art discourses. There is a change of exhibition at least twice a year. In order to do justice to the interdisciplinary character of the artist's work and to ensure a vital place for Austrian contemporary art, an extensive program of events is also offered, ranging from literature and music to performances, lectures and art events.

Exhibitions

September 2009 - April 2010

Under the title All Beginnings is Difficult - Early Works 1949–1961 , the opening exhibition was the first to give a concentrated overview of one of the most exciting periods of the visual arts in Austria in the 20th century. Works from 1949 to the end of the 1950s showed the Austrian and international relevance of Arnulf Rainer's early work, starting with his surrealistic representational, often large-format drawings up to the first phase of his world-famous overpainting and cross-work.

May - November 2010

Cross - It is the cross that could make sense was the title of the second exhibition. The cross theme can be found in all of Arnulf Rainer's creative periods, which is why photo overpaintings, large wooden crosses, oil paintings and mixed techniques from both the early years (1965) to recent works (2009) were presented. The exhibition was designed by Reinhold Baumstark , Director General of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen from 1999 to 2009 , before that Director General of the Bavarian National Museum and for 16 years head of the Prince Liechtenstein Collection.

November 2010 - October 2011

The third exhibition, VISAGES, testifies to the artist's long exploration of his own face, his great interest in facial features on death masks and, ultimately, the artistic use of faces from art history from antiquity to the end of the 19th century. Using around 80 exhibits, the comprehensive show shows the various forms and techniques in which Arnulf Rainer has repeatedly taken up the topic from the 1950s to his most recent works.

The exhibition, curated by the renowned French art expert Jean-Michel Foray, shows itself to be very radical in the beginning and then becomes increasingly calm in the more recent works, as if the artist wants to convince us at the end of a journey that painting is visual Form of mental awareness remains valid.

October 2011 - April 2012

With the fourth exhibition a guest was invited to present his work together with Arnulf Rainer's artistic work for the first time. Under the title LUSTSPIEL. News from the studio will show new works by Georg Baselitz and Arnulf Rainer, and the Dutch art historian Rudi Fuchs , who has known the work of both masters well for many years , has been appointed curator . Fuchs decided to design the presentation in the historical, specific location of the women's pool as a casual, informal encounter between two gentlemen who show each other what they are doing.

Frauenbad (history, architecture, operation)

As early as 1297 there was a large chapel above the source of the women's bath, which was called the Frauenkirche. This church was a gift from Heinrich von Pottendorf to the Augustinian convent, which had existed since 1285.

The spring, which was probably already used by the Romans, sprang from under the steps of the high altar and filled the reservoir of the bath, which was built on the north side of the church. The first mention of the women's bath occurs in a document from 1357; the bath belonged to Duke Albrecht II at the time . In 1531, Emperor Ferdinand I donated the women's pool and the new bathroom built on the south side of the church to the city of Baden as a replacement for the Turkish damage from 1529.

In 1613, Emperor Matthias set up a separate bathing court for the women's baths, as abuse had crept into the bathing establishment that the nobility had granted themselves the exclusive privilege of bathing alone or only with those who were subject to land rights. For this reason, the emperor at the time initiated bathing regulations consisting of 22 laws.

When the Frauenbad building was partially destroyed in the fire that ravaged almost all of Baden in 1812, it was time to rebuild the bathroom: On April 7, 1821, the foundation stone was laid by the benefactor of Baden, Archduke Anton (1779-1835), and on June 11 of the same year the opening of the new bathing house took place. The memorial stone that was set at that time is now in the foyer of the women's bath.

The final draft of the single-storey complex, which is two-storey in the area of ​​the main hall, is generally attributed to Karl Ritter von Moreau (1758–1840). According to the view of the architectural historian Kräftner ( Im Schatten der Weilburg , p. 82), which is based on evidence , the first projects by Johann Aman (1765–1834 ) date back to 1811, when the idea was to create a spacious imperial bathing area at the site to erect, and archival materials and large-scale plans made a connection with the activities of the court building council under Aman .

Upon completion, Baden received a marble bathroom construction in the bathrooms, which not only met the highest demands of bathers, but also could hardly be surpassed in terms of external beauty. Well-known personalities such as Emperor Franz I (1768–1835) and Friedrich August Elector of Saxony (1750–1827) were among the bathers.

Soon after the opening, however, there were all sorts of deficiencies that became worse from year to year. So in 1876 they decided to initiate a radical change and new production in all parts according to the requirements of the time.

The building was radically rebuilt from 1877 to 1878 according to plans by the city engineer Julius Heene, who was appointed to office in 1875, and was completed on June 2, 1878. The main hall with skylight is crowned by a rich, strictly historical stucco ceiling . The large pools in the bathrooms are made of marble, as are the wall coverings. Restorations took place in 1950, 1964/65, 1977, 1979/80, 1987, 1991 to 1994 and 2008/09. Behind the broad main front with a slightly protruding nine-axis portico , a colonnade formed by eight monumental Tuscan columns and straight classical entablature extends between corner pillars . The straight crowns of the windows in the uniaxial flanks are console-supported , like the window openings on the side facades. The strict rear facade (the so-called Karolinenbad ) is characterized by a gabled central projectile and a three-arched arcade .

In the post-war period, from July 10, 1945, the Frauenbad was the only spa facility in the city. After the bathing operation was closed on 14./15. On November 23, 1977, the Frauenbad became an exhibition center for the municipality on November 23, 1973 and opened as the Arnulf-Rainer Museum on September 27, 2009.

literature

  • Johann Kräftner (Ed.): In the shadow of the Weilburg. Bathing in Biedermeier. An exhibition by the town of Baden in Frauenbad from September 23, 1988 to January 31, 1989. Grasl, Baden 1988, ISBN 3-85098-186-X .
  • Viktor Wallner : From the headquarters to the congress casino. 50 years of bathing in data and images. 1945-1995 . New Badener Blätter, entertaining and interesting facts from the health resort Baden near Vienna, Volume 6.1, ZDB-ID 2161928-1. Publishing house of the Society of Friends of Baden and the Municipal Collections, Baden 1993.
  • Viktor Wallner: Houses, people and stories - a Baden anecdotal walk. Society of Friends of Baden, Baden 2002, OBV .
  • Peter Aichinger-Rosenberger (among others): Lower Austria south of the Danube. Band 1: A to L . Dehio-Handbuch , Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs, topographic monuments inventory. Berger, Horn / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-85028-364-X .
  • Matthias Boeckl (ed.): The women's bath in Baden. Classicism architecture in Austria . Edition Arnulf-Rainer-Museum, Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-200-01577-7 .

Web links

Commons : Arnulf Rainer Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wallner: Houses. P. 168.
  2. ^ A b Aichinger-Rosenberger: Lower Austria south of the Danube. P. 176.
  3. ^ Wallner: From the headquarters to the congress casino. P. 7.
  4. ^ Wallner: From the headquarters to the congress casino. P. 40.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Moreau was actually "only" involved in the planning with the submission of a few drafts . All other local decisions were made by Mayor Martin Mayer (1765–1832) and the city architect Anton Hantl (1769–1850). - Matthias Boeckl: On the building history of the women's bath in Baden. (…) The construction carried out: Charles de Moreau and Anton Hantl . In: Boeckl: The women's pool in Baden . P. 34.

Coordinates: 48 ° 0 ′ 22.4 ″  N , 16 ° 14 ′ 1.4 ″  E