Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna
Part of UK in Austria
21st October 2016 Vienna, Austria
Edmund de Waal: During the Night
A man awakes from a nightmare in the depths of the night. He writes down his fears and illustrates them with a painting.
500 years later, another artist is inspired by the painting to gather together a collection of historical objects, images and treasures from one of the finest collections in the world to “explore themes of anxiety, the fear of the unknown and what terrors can be found after dark”.
The man waking in the night is Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528), the great German renaissance artist. The man inspired was Edmund de Waal, an artist in porcelain and author of the book The Hare with Amber Eyes, published in 2010. The exhibition he has produced, During the Night, is on until 29 January 2017 at the magnificent Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
I recommend During the Night, whose opening I had the privilege of attending. The exhibits, which are shown brightly lit in otherwise Stygian darkness in an exhibition room in the heart of the Museum, are an eclectic mixture of objects and art works ranging from 3rd century “evil eyes” from Constantinople; through depictions of malevolence in medieval art, mystic objects designed to detect poisons and polished coral relics once thought to have represented the hair of the Medusa or congealed blood; to a 16thC “shake-box” containing realistic models of creepy-crawlies which come to life when the box is disturbed.
As a bonus, guarding but not part of the exhibition, The Hare with Amber Eyes itself stands alert in a display case outside the doors. The ivory netsuke is a beautiful and, thanks to the book, almost talismanic object. This is the first time that the piece has visited Vienna since 1945.
The exhibition makes you think. After seeing it, and talking to the remarkably self-effacing Edmund de Waal, I was reminded of the quote by Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill, about the British politicians Gladstone and Disraeli. After meeting both, she said: “when I left the dining room after sitting next to Gladstone, I thought he was the cleverest man in England. But when I sat next to Disraeli I left feeling that I was the cleverest woman.”
I can’t guarantee that you’ll leave During the Night feeling smarter, but it certainly left me intrigued. Worth a look if you’re in Vienna – along with the rest of the Kunsthistorisches.