Untamed Nature

Painters from Claude Lorrain to Caspar David Friedrich have repeatedly focused on man’s relationship with Nature. Theatre both dramatized the subjects devised by painters and added new ones. These ephemeral images of a condensed world – placed on a stage with actors and designed to wax and wane under stage lighting – form not only the foil for dramatic actions but were frequently the main reason for a scene or event.

From the late 18^th century onwards untamed Nature - strange and dangerous, an elemental force that constantly reminds man of his own limitations – increasingly becomes a place of longing.

The aim of this exhibition at the Austrian Theatre Museum is to show how artists frequently looked to Nature for inspiration to depict a counter-world. On show are works by, among others, Lodovico Ottavio Burnacini, Joseph Platzer, Josef Hoffmann, Adolphe Appia, Alfred Roller, Remigius Geyling, Ewald Dülberg and Caspar Neher; they come from our extensive holdings as well as from the theatre collections in Bern, the University of Cologne, the Richard Wagner Museum in Bayreuth and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

The exhibition is curated by Vana Greisenegger-Georgila, and designed by vana-architekten.