Page 22 - Studio International - September 1965

Cuixart, Biasi, Baj, and Oelze). Again and again the
1 the Museum take into account existing conditions in
Sculptures ,n the garden
Etienne-Martin Le grand Couple (left foreground)
Otto Freundlich Ascension 1929 (rear)
2 and the 'Kunstlerhaus' belong to artist's associations.
Lynn Foulkes Mount Hood, Oregon 1963
1 /2
96
question is debated whether museum acquisitions
should extend to works by artists of the immediate
present. I do not think that this question can be
answered in the abstract; it can only be dealt with
concretely. One can hardly blame the young director
of a museum if he looks at the artists of his own
generation as partners. as contemporaries of whose
talent he is convinced. To deprive them of their right
to a worthy position would in the last analysis be
questioning his own judgment and function.
The activities lying outside the immediate scope of
Vienna and therefore have a fairly wide range. There is
no single exhibition centre in Vienna. The 'Secession'
Besides, they are frequently diverted from their
original function by being hired out for tourist exhibi-
tions. The Museum in the Swiss Garden must therefore
fulfil the function of an art gallery as well. An average
of six to seven exhibitions are shown here during the
year. In a town lacking a film theatre and a film club of
any standing offering regular performances. the task
also devolves upon the Museum to inform on the
history of the film and to show contemporary experi­
mental films. This was done in a concentrated form
by the French Film Weeks (1963) organised by the
Cinemateque Franc;:aise. If the Museum were better
staffed, much more could be done in this field.
Music too figures regularly on the Museum's pro­
gramme. Some eight to ten concerts are arranged every
season. Most of them take place in the lecture-hall,
where films are also shown. and which has a seating
capacity of 120. Occasionally these concerts are held
in the Exhibition Hall which holds an audience of
about six to seven hundred. This co-existence of the
fine arts and music (as well as film and dance) is
designed to bring into contact different sections of the
public and to counteract intellectual segregation. The
concert programmes attempt to fill the gap left by
Vienna's concert organisers. They are arranged in
consultation with Friedrich Cerha, the director of the
orchestra ensemble 'Die Reihe' (The Series), and are
so planned that overlapping with the notoriously