On April 1, 2014, the opening reception of the Red Bull Stratos: Mission to the Edge of Space exhibit took place at Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum. On October 14, 2012, Austrian daredevil, BASE jumper and skydiver, Felix Baumgartner became the first human to successfully accelerate through the sound barrier in free fall by jumping to Earth from a helium balloon in the stratosphere.
Annemarie Moser-Pröll, the most succesful female Alpine ski racer during the 1970s, was inducted into the International Ski Racing Hall of Fame as the 2014 legend of Honor in Vail, CO during a ceremony on March 22, 2014. More than 40 of the most sucesfull ski racers were in attendance, among them Marc Girardelli and Franz Klammer.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City shows a major collaborative exhibit exploring the city of Vienna through the history of cinema. The exhibit, supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, focuses on Austrian and German Jewish émigrés as they look back on the city they left behind, as well as on contemporary filmmakers and artists.
MoMA PS1 is currently showing works by Austrian painter Maria Lassnig. The exhibition will be on display until May 25, 2014. As the museum points out, Maria Lassnig (born 1919) is one of the most important contemporary painters and can be seen as a pioneer in many areas of art today. Emphatically refusing to make "pictures," she has long focused on ways of representing her internal world.
The Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico currently shows Decay and Revolution : Art in Vienna, 1890-1910. The Exhibition consists of 36 works from the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, and represents different aspects of artistic creation during one of the most vibrant periods in the history of Western art. It brings the art of the Secession movement to Puerto Rico for the first time.
On 22 February, Vienna City Councillor Andreas Mailath-Pokorny and the Austrian Consul General in New York, Georg Heindl, handed the Decoration of Honor in Gold for services to the Republic of Austria to Ms. Renée Price, director of the Neue Gallerie in New York City. The Decoration had been awarded to her by decision of the Austrian Federal President. Ms. Renée Price has served as Director of the Neue Galerie since its founding. She was instrumental in making this Museum a center of world-wide renown for Austrian and German Art.
On March 29, 2014, the Austrian painter duo Daryoush ASGAR and Elisabeth GABRIEL opened their exhibition “Armed with Fever and Good Health” at the Torrance Art Museum in Torrance, CA. All their work is characterized by a love for psychedelia and counter-culture activities and in their own words combines “conventional canvas and references to history painting with the language of mass media and advertising.” The exhibit will be shown throughout May 15th.
