Vienna Art & Design

I am currently in Melbourne for work and am doing my best to fit in a spot of sightseeing in my down time.  First stop was to visit the NGV to take in the exhibition Vienna Art & Design.  And it is gorgeous.  Really well curated with some lovely content, though slightly on the pricey side for an exhibition of this scale.  I admit that the only thing I previously knew about Viennese art and design was Gustav Klimt's gilded ladies, so it was educational for me to learn a bit more about the Vienna Secession and Art Nouveau.

All of the beautiful curlicues and gold and square gemstones and brightly coloured graphic design have immediate appeal, but I also appreciated the simple lines and details of some of the less extravagant pieces.  A lot of the objects had a slight Old School Sci Fi feel to them which has given me a craving to see the film Metropolis.

Mustard Pot by Josef Hoffman

Front door for the Viennese newspaper Die Zeit, designed by Otto Wagner.  The full scale reproduction at the NGV is impressive and includes newspaper pages pinned to the panels in the front, as they would have appeared on a daily basis back in 1902.