his legacy in a new museum in Vienna. Works, not trophies- Corriere.it
The rich woman of Austria had collected more, in thirty years of passionate activity, a treasure that is now in a permanent exhibition, open to the public. With works by Warhol, Hirst, Paladino. And a sculpture garden
The collector Heidi Göss-Horten, the richest woman in Austria, passed away on 12 June at the age of 81. Viennese, with an estimated assets of about 3 billion dollars, he had collected a real treasure of art from her villa on Lake Wörthersee in Carinthia in thirty years. This article, written shortly before her death, will be published in “7” on newsstands on 17 June. We anticipate it for the readers of Corriere.it
Curiosity enriches life, makes proactive, projects into the future. For thirty years now, the North Star of Heidi Göss Horten’s life born Jelinek, a Viennese lady who had three husbands and who left us at the age of 81 a few days ago, has always been artespecially the contemporary one, among the works of his collection lived in his own home: Armleder, Bacon, Baselitz, Basquiat, Fleury, Flavin, Fontana, Hirst, Paladino, Warhol, West, just a few names of the large collection of about a thousand works.
In the artists’ studios
Opening a private museum in Vienna, right next to the Albertina (which two years ago inaugurated a new office near Karlsplatz) means entering a very well defined cultural context in which the presence of state museums plays a significant role. For the strong-willed Heidi it was not so much about collecting trophies (as works can often become) but “her” artists, with a penchant for luminous works, for lettering, and those subject to animals (in the garden of the villa in Düsseldorf had flamingos and parrots that she painted herself) with an eye and a taste that in 1990, when to start buying, were not all taken for granted, visiting artists’ studios, such as George Condo’s in New York, where she bought 15 paintings from her “belly” (as she says). And then that auction at Sotheby’s, in 1994, during which she bought about thirty works.
She did it all by herself, relying on her own flair and on style guidelines, after the death in 1987 of her first husband Helmut (a wealthy German merchant whose assets, under Nazism, had been acquired by Aryanization of shops from Jewish owners and on this consolidated chapter Heidi Göss-Horten commissioned an in-depth study to the historian Peter Hoeres of the University of Würzburg, published online), attesting to a feminine awareness thanks to her intuitive work, with this museum, on the international scene, under the guidance of the director Agnes Husslein-Arco. The building itself, from the early 1900s (building of the former Habsburg Chancellery) which is its headquarters (gutted by the architecture studio The Next ENTERprise, characterized by diffused light and the presence of a staircase) has an older root : the Roman one, of Vindobona, headquarters of the legions. Open, the inaugural exhibition of the Heidi Horten collectionit is a true “state of the art”.
The sculpture of a prehistoric monster, all to be played
The works of art on display over a span of 60 years, from 1960 to today, some with mirrors made in situ, as in the case of the bathrooms (usually neglected area) with the silver nitrate mirrors at Dus, in the tea room are instead Markus Schinwald intervened with a specially designed upholstery as well as a piece of furniture made with portholes while the sculptor Hans Kupelwieser who used red enamelled aluminum sheets curled by the “teeth” of an excavator . Among the luminous works stands out that of John Armeleder conceived as a target of concentric circles of color, the year of creation, 2001, inducing us to think about that tragic 11 September in New York. Dan Flavin, great experimenter of neon, is also present in this collection and in this exhibition with a work from 1976 (dedicated to the art historian Helen Winkler who strongly supported the minimalism of which Flavin is a main exponent) that radiates in a corner blue, yellow and green light. Light also enters right into the lettering, like the one used by Tim Noble & Sue Webster, a big red heart from the writing Fuckin ‘nice (2000), the duo is also the author of another opera, Forevercomposed of 194 light bulbs, made in 1996 and installed at a bus stop in Tottenham Court Road, London, to light up a neighborhood at the time tristanzuolo.
The papier-mâché sculpture by Franz West
Then there is also the conceptual work of the artist Joseph Kosuth who “rewrites” a phrase of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Language must speak for itself”. It plays an important role in this sculpture both inside and outside the building, with the artist François-Xavier Lalanne and the black patinated bronze figure of an imposing monkey, and then with the friendly hare by Claude Lalanne (Gran Lapin de Victoire, 2001/2003). There Vibrosauria by Constantin Luser, 6.22 high with a neck that reaches up to the first floor of the building, is a brass animal, a set of trumpets, horns and a bass tuba that can be played simultaneously by 24 instrumentalists, the performance of the opening, accompanied by a drums, involved the whole audience, who did not hesitate to try his hand at the instrument. Franz West questions the concept of sculpture by tackling it with a poor material, such as papier-mâché, and using the lid of a paint bucket as a base.
Three classics by Lucio Fontana
Erwin Wurm, has made irony the recognizable trademark of his style and here too he confirms himself with his drawer man, who “wears” a half pink and half gray shirt. Italian art is represented by two protagonists of the art of the Sixties, Lucio Fontana with three classic paintings, He waited, in white, green and yellow. It is a work of Alighiero Boetti, whose name is made up of 625 letters woven by hand on a loom. And naturally, in his excellent collection, works of art could not be missing Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol. Heidi Horten’s love of art was not limited only to the visual arts, but she also covered fashion, and her wardrobe was of the finest haute couture with dresses by Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Jean Patou, and the Viennese Arturo Arbesser. Heidi had time to deliver her museum to the city, leaving it as a legacy of a passion to be shared.
June 16, 2022 (change June 16, 2022 | 09:38)
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