The Beauty of Diversity moves in the field of tension between an established understanding of art and its renewal. The exhibition unfolds its persuasive power in the juxtaposition of renowned artists who have always wanted to strain the canon and yet have become canonised, and new discoveries as well as those who irritate viewing habits, swim against the tide, shake the foundations of high culture, break the norm and thus establish the aesthetics of diversity.
Above all, however, The Beauty of Diversity is about determining the position of a collection. Museums with collecting activities spanning several centuries and institutions that bring together the most important icons and masterpieces of the older and more recent past are all faced with a similar dilemma today. Current developments and the postulate of the zeitgeistes for diversity and inclusion emphasise more than ever the one-sidedness of collection focuses, which have long determined the orientation of content. They make us drastically aware of mechanisms of exclusion.and inclusion emphasise more than ever the one-sidedness of collection focuses, which have long determined the orientation of content. They make us drastically aware of mechanisms of exclusion.
New identities beyond the canon
The art world today is intensively concerned with identity-political issues relating to class, race and gender. The broad spectrum of artistic approaches, stylistic and thematic approaches represents a necessary addition to the art-historical canon represented in the ALBERTINA Museum, from Michelangelo and Raphael to Dürer, Rembrandt and Rubens to Goya, Schiele, Picasso and Warhol. The demand for the expansion and diversification of museum collections goes hand in hand with the unconditional demand for equality and freedom of expression.
The exhibition The Beauty of Diversity presents the diversity of the ALBERTINA Museum’s collections with its holdings of contemporary art from 1945 onwards and recent acquisitions, and defines the richness of a collection through its heterogeneity and the unconditional desire for diversity. It also underlines the need to give visibility to other perspectives and to consider women, LGBTQIA+ artists, people of colour, aboriginal positions, autodidacts and outsiders who stand out against the contrasting backdrop of the Old Masters.
The exhibition develops an aesthetic of diversity that counteracts the ideality of a classical will to style and form. It explores the beauty of the grotesque, the impure and the repressed. The marginalised and the deviation from the norm become visible. The hybrid mixing and recombination of different systems and genders plays just as important a role as the presentation of the marginalised.
The inclusion of artists from Australia, Africa, Asia and South America plays an important role and counteracts the exclusivity of Eurocentric, Western thinking and action.
Autodidacts demonstrate a pronounced will to do what they have to do, prove authenticity by stating the inner necessity of art. Border crossers not only recall art as an anthropological constant, but also exemplify non-conformist ways of living and working in their deviant mode of existence.
Duration: 16 February – 18 August 2024
Exhibition venue: ALBERTINA MODERN
Curator: Angela Stief
Works: 110
Catalogue: Available in the ALBERTINA shop and at www.albertina.at
Contact: Albertinaplatz 1 | 1010 Vienna T +43 (0)1 534 83 0 www.albertina