KOMMENTIERTES JAHRBUCH 1941

(annotated year book 1941), 2016

ANNOTATED YEARBOOK 1941 consists of the proof sheets of a fictional work-in-progress facsimile edition of the 1941 Yearbook published by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna framed by comments.

Printed in the beginning of 1942 the publication gathered primarily black-and-white pictures of works by teachers and students at the Academy during the Nazi era. The reproduced works from the various departments – architecture, scenography, sculpture, painting, art education, nude drawing, perspective, ornamental script and preservation – are annotated with biographical information from the University Archives of the Academy, supplemented by additional sources. 

This analysis of a central means of the Academy’s self-presentation during the Nazi period therefore ensues at a distance of 75 years. The information on the teachers and students sheds new light on their works shown in the yearbook without further comment. In this way, ANNOTATED YEARBOOK 1941 also raises the question of whether or better: how the inhumane and murderous Nazi ideology is articulated in the reproduced works themselves. The unfinished form of the exhibited proofs, with tick marks, page information etc., refers to the amount of work required to reappraise the institution’s Nazi past in detail, as well as to the potential interminability of such an undertaking.