Cultural Revolution in the Heart of Europe During the 19th century, with many Central European countries still under the control of the Habsburgs, art and culture were often the only ways in which the Empire’s constituent crownlands could express their national identities. A century after the end of Habsburg dominance in Central Europe, this study day looks at the arts and culture in the imperial capital of Vienna and the principal metropolises of the Czechs and the Hungarians. 1 The Art and Culture of Vienna 1900 Vienna was the capital of a vast empire and one of the most exciting artistic laboratories in the world. Around 1900, it produced painters such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl, architects like Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the composer Gustav Mahler. Looking at these and others figures in context, the opening session of this study day asks how and why the City of Dreams became a cultural hotbed around 1900. 2 The Magic of Prague: the City and the Czech Cultural Revival As part of the Habsburg Empire, Prague was beloved of kings and princes. During the 19th century, however, the Czechs sought to reclaim the city for their own. Looking at their roots and mythology, the Czech people imagined a new future through art, reshaping movements such as Romanticism and symbolism in patriotic ways. Looking at painters including Alfons Mucha, Otakar Lebeda and Jakub Schikaneder and composers like Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, as well as their forward-thinking literary and architectural contemporaries, this talk shows how the Czechs reclaimed both country and capital through cultural means. 3 A Hungarian Metropolis Budapest was formed in 1873 by the unification of Buda and Pest, situated on either side of the Danube. The new capital was the focus of resurgent Hungarian nationalism, finding expression in lavish new buildings, the continent’s first underground railway system and paintings of specifically Hungarian subjects and locales. Meanwhile, in the countryside, composers like Bartók and Kodály began collecting the music of their compatriots. Placing these endeavours in a historical framework, the final lecture of this study day explores how Hungarians came to understand their national identity through culture. |