If anyone visits Vienna, there are places that you must see especially if you are a lover of art and art history like myself.
1) Karlskirche. Phenomenal. They are actually doing resotrations at the moment and so they have an elevator and stairs that take you right up to the top of the dome and you are literally face to face with these basolutely phenomenal frescos. It was definately one of the most amazing experiences. Even if the restorations are over and they are no longer doing the lifts I would still recommend it as a great site to visit that doesn't take all that long.
2) The Leopold Museum. Amazing. This museum focuses mostly on expressionism and impressionism, which are my personal favorites. It also had an abstract exhibit on Johannes Thurman (I believe that was his name). I know a lot of people who didn't appreciate the abstractness but I personally found all the different methods and layers and colors and brush strokes to be amazing. I mean I like Renaissance Art and all and Realism can be quite fascinating especially their use of light even back then as a tool to focus their audience on specifics parts and messages in their paintings, but I also feel that art is a way to express yourself and that sometimes realism is just too safe. A lot of expressionists and impressionists took a lot of risks with their paintings and raised a lot of controversy but I think that's important. Speaking of controversy, they also are holding a phenomenal exhibit on Gustav Klimt. I can't even convey how absolutely breathtaking this exhibit was. Right in the first room they had the three huge paintings of Justice, Philosophy, and Medicine that he pained for the University in the early 1900s and there was such controversy about them because they didn't depict the traditional symbols for those fields that they refused to hang them and he eventually resigned from the project. There's so much meaning though! I even bought a book on his works so I can look at them all the time, I wanted posters but I couldn't find the ones I was looking for. Oh well, maybe All Posters will have them.
3) Albertina. This museum I have yet to go to, but it is next on the list. Their slogan is from Goya to Picasso. I am so excited. I have looked up to and read about Picasso ever since elementary school. I've seen some of his work in the Prado Museum in Madrid, but I am definately excited.
other than that I also have to his up the Kunsthistoriches (more of a traditional art history museum focusing on the earlier european periods) and also the Belvedere.
It is such a shame that the United States is so young and therefore the I feel the culture is lacking compared to Europe and Asia and the like.
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