ALPINE ROPE TEAMS
MOUNTAINEERING AROUND 1900
05.11.2022-08.10.2023
When the Rax mountain range and alpine regions evolved into tourism hotspots in the beginning of the 20th century, the fine arts had no small part in it.
While the mountains had long attracted day trippers, the emerging array of winter sports now also started to become popular with a large audience.
Artistic contributions to alpinism
Gustav Jahn and Otto Barth, two artists and mountain-loving “activists“ had a significant part in this development, forming “rope teams“ with other influential personalities, including Mizzi Langer-Kauba, Fritz Benesch and Camillo Kronich. They worked together to get the “tourist machinery“ going.
FROM MAKING NATURE ACCESSIBLE ALL THE WAY TO OVERTOURISM
The exhibition illustrates the achievements of the driving activists and artists. With the Rax as a hub, it tells of the development of the Alpine region as a tourist area. The motifs in the top-class paintings, drawings and photographs range from the Bismarcksteig on the Rax to the Grossglockner and Mont Blanc. In addition to impressive landscapes and enthusiastic sportsmen and women, everyday scenes such as farmers at work are also captured. Tourism posters, relief maps, specialist books and a wealth of documentary material on the subject of alpinism and tourism convey a vivid impression of the mountain world around 1900.
The numerous items on loan come from the Provincial Collections of Lower Austria, the Austrian Alpine Club Museum∙Archives, the Austrian Tourist Club, the Austrian Alpine Club and private collections, among others.
Curator: Wolfgang Krug