Parallel to the exhibition in the Austrian Pavilion in Venice this year, a landmark publication titled "Austria and the Venice Biennale 1895–2013" was launched in Vienna on 29th April 2013. This scholarly, 540-page publication presents for the first time a comprehensive overview of each individual exhibition, with the help of previously unpublished photographs, plans and correspondence drawn from public and private archives in many different countries.

The list of artists that have represented Austria at the Venice Biennale over the last 120 years includes many of the leading figures of its cultural avant-garde: from Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oscar Kokoschka, through Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Arnulf Rainer and Walter Pichler to Valie Export, Maria Lassnig and Franz West. Its commissioners, given the responsibility of organising their exhibitions, have included individuals such as Josef Hoffmann, Otto Benesch, Hans Hollein, Peter Weibel and Kasper König.

The book will also examine the story behind the construction of the Austrian Pavilion in 1934, from plans drawn up by the architects Josef Hoffmann and Robert Kramreiter.

Initiated and edited by this year’s commissioner Jasper Sharp, the book includes essays by historian Philipp Blom and Rainald Franz (MAK, Vienna). Its extensive illustrated chronology researched by art historians Christina Bartosch and Judith Stöckl is accompanied by short texts by Martin Hochleitner (Salzburg Museum), Günther Holler-Schuster (Neue Galerie, Graz), Antonia Hoerschelmann (Albertina, Vienna), Harald Krejci (Belvedere, Vienna), and Susanne Neuburger (mumok, Vienna).

The book has been designed by leading Austrian graphic designer Martha Stutteregger, and published by Verlag für moderne Kunst in both German and English languages. It was launched at the Secession, Vienna, on Monday, 29th April 2013, and was available from 1st June 2013. Ever since Fall 2013 the book has been sold out.

Austria and the Venice Biennale 1895–2013
Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg
Euro 58,–
ISBN 978-3-86984-407-7