Steven Pollock

Steven Pollock is an American writer & curator based in Vienna.

In a text accompanying Christian T. Norum’s curatorial installation at No Institute, Edvard Munch tells his interlocutor he must “learn to fall.”

Christian T. Norum, Self-portrait as a Roman Swordsman in the 11th Century, 2025. 19 ⅚ × 15 inches. Oil over off-set lithograph. Courtesy the artist and Norse Institute Central Europe.

After premiering A Year without Summer, Florentina Holzinger’s trajectory is as assured as her seven-syllable name, echoing the alliteration and assonance of the equally divisive Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Florentina Holzinger, A Year Without Summer, 2025. Photo: Nicole Marianna Wytyczak

The Albertina, one of Austria’s premiere cultural institutions, has appointed Ralph Gleis as its new director, succeeding Klaus Albrecht Schröder. Previously the head of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Gleis conveyed his vision for the Albertina, the Albertina Modern, and the Albertina Klosterneuburg to the Rail’s Editor-at-Large Steven Pollock.

Jenny Saville & Ralph Gleis, Gaze, 2021–2024. 200 × 160 cm, Oil and acrylic on linen. © Jenny Saville / Bildrecht, Vienna, 2025. Photo: Esel / Lorenz Seller.

When viewing the 23 paintings, masks, and costumes that comprise Eva Beresin’s exhibition OffStage, one navigates intersecting characteristics of theatre and painting.

Eva Beresin, You or me or both of us?, 2024. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 200 x 167 cm. Courtesy the artist and Charmin Galerie. Photo: Peter M. Mayr.

Italian sculptor Medardo Rosso (1858–1928), a self-described “European anarchist born on a train,” is the subject of a long-overdue retrospective at mumok—Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien. Around fifty of Rosso's sculptures—variants from his thirty-nine proto-original subjects cast in the archaic lost-wax method—are installed over two museum floors. These multiples, each unique in color, finish, material, and scale, are produced over numerous series that constitute his entire output.

Medardo Rosso in his studio. Modern print from original glass negative. © Archivo Medardo Rosso.

At the Albertina, one can examine the metamorphosis from Robert Longo’s 1980 black and white charcoal drawings, each of which are Untitled (and named parametrically Eric, Cindy, Frank, and Gretchen) leading to 1989’s multi-media Combine, Now Everybody (For R.W.Fassbinder).

Robert Longo, Bodyhammer: Uzi, 1993. 96 × 48 inches, Graphite and charcoal on paper. Siegfried and Jutta Weishaupt Collection | © Robert Longo / Bildrecht, Vienna 2024. Photo: Robert Longo Studio.

Regarding the arts, the nation of Austria is known for punching above its weight. At Belvedere 21 the stage was set for a double act, when the curators chose an undocumented 1963 meeting that took place in Frederick Kiesler’s New York studio with Walter Pichler.

Walter Pichler and Prototype, circa 1966. ©2024 Estate of Walter Pichler.
Like a soldier trained to watch Bikini Atoll through Rembrandt’s eyes, Roy Lichtenstein, arguably art’s greatest humorist, takes us from the ridiculous to the sublime. As an artist who repeatedly swore that his works were purely abstract, devoid of message, Lichtenstein’s work may have been full of mantic allusions and meditations over our civilization’s fragile future.
Roy Lichtenstein with Look Mickey, 1961. Photo: Ken Heyman.

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