fig.: 'Raucherinnen' (could be translated as 'Smoking Women') by the Austrian feminist artist Kiki Kogelnik, 1973. Some of Kiki Kogelnik's paintings remember fashion illustrations. The artist questions in her work the representation of women in media such as in advertising campaigns. Kiki Kogelnik was born in Bleiburg (Carinthia, Austria) in 1935, lived in New York and Vienna and died of cancer in 1997 in Vienna. Photo: Pedro Salvadore. (C) JTI Tobacco Collection Vienna. Courtesy Kiki Kogelnik Foundation Vienna/New York.

Intoxicants in art

In summer 2012, two Austrian art museums introduce into the cultural history of drink and tobacco by presenting objects that give insights into lifestyle through hundreds and thousands of years.

The tobbacco exhibtion 'Blue Haze. Tobacco in Art' at the Forum Frohner, Kunsthalle Krems (Lower Austria) presents from 13 May to 30 September 2012 art works from the JTI Tobacco Collection Vienna by artists such as Kiki Kogelnik (photo), Kolo Moser, Helmut Newton, to name a few. The art works guide through 500 years of cultural history of lifestyle, entertainment and the use of the tobacco plant.

"It would only take 150 years from the discovery of America in 1492 to the establishment of the dominance of tobacco as a global luxury intoxicant." kunsthalle.at

The second exhibition is dedicated to the presentation of wine in art. From 5 June to 2 September 2012, the KHM Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna invites to an extended art-culture tour - not only hundreds of years like at the tobacco-art show. 'Art and Wine' spans over thousands of years! The wine plant is one of the world's oldest culture plant. The KHM will show art works from the own collection where the culture around wine - table dishes, drinking vessels, porcelain and glass objects, lifestyle and enjoyment are depicted.

The KHM introduces on khm.at into the exhibtion and the favorite art theme (excessive) 'enjoyment' which can be found with all its consequences (joy and sexual high spirits at first, sick feeling later) in all ages.


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