Vienna Part 5: Monday Art Galleries

Final posting - (its been over 4 weeks since we went!)

It was much easier to get up on Monday morning - although a little sad as we had to pack our bags and check out from our lovely hotel. After checking out and stowing our luggage for later collection we headed out to the Museums Quartier once more to use the second half of our duo ticket to go to the Leopold Museum. M had entered into Art hell whilst I returned to Art Heaven.

Having learnt from our previous visit to the MOMUK gallery we took the lift to the top floor where we started with early 20th Century art. To be honest this is the only floor I actually remembered because there were more Klimts (including some of his very erotic sketches), poster designs from the Secession and Werner Werkstatte displays. This gallery also had the bulk of the work of Egon Scheile, whilst he was no doubt accomplished I found some of his potraiture quite grotesque and unappealing. It is debatable that more people would have known more about this artist if he hadn't died at the relatively young age of 28. He and his wife were victims of the 1918 influenza epidemic. In fact, 1918 was a dreadful year for the Austrian art world as four of their major artists died in that year: Egon Scheile, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner and Scheile's mentor Gustav Klimt. We made out way further through the rooms and until we got to the lowest floor where there was an exhibition of art from the Faro Islands, this included pictures of Puffins in formal tie and suits. I think G liked it, I found it erm, forgetable.

M and I sought out a touch of lunch after this, and after a few crossed wires with G & Mr.T who were already on their way to another tourist visit, I managed to convince M that another art gallery visit could be squeezed in. The next excursion included a metro ride to the central station and then a 10 minute walk - making use of my excellent map reading skills. We were walking amongst some fairly unremarkable Viennesse streets in the outskirts when we came across our destination:

The Kunst Haus Wien, a building in the middle of a pedestrian street decorated in black and white squares. Our tickets weren't even the usual kind - I think if M and I went repeatedly (unlikely - his patience was tested enough) we could end up with a jigsaw puzzle. We didn't have a long time to look round the gallery featuring the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser but what we did see was very colourful. I am pretty sure this guy inspired the Teletubbies house. I did not have very much time in the shop either but came out with the regulation guide book and postcards. I also couldn't resist some Opal Hundertwasser sock yarn (in colour 676A) it screamed C's name (the turquoise and purple are her colours), I think socks are off the menu though (baby cardigan for BabyBel is). G - if only I had known you were going to become crochet obsessed 2 weeks later........