Brandl painting covers Vienna State Opera curtain

The Vienna State Opera’s Iron Curtain features a work by the late Austrian painter Herbert Brandl this season, ORF reported. It is the first time the curtain has been designed by an artist who is no longer alive.

The oversized painting shows airy white forms and flecks against a deep blue background, which can be interpreted as clouds or spray. State Opera director Bogdan Roscic called himself a “great admirer” of Brandl’s work at its presentation on Wednesday, telling about 1,000 invited guests that Brandl was “quite simply one of the greatest masters of this country.”

The decision to select the Styrian artist was made while he was still alive. The project, now in its 29th edition, is being organised by museum in progress and based on a decision by an international three-member jury.

Jury member Daniel Birnbaum described the presentation as both joyful and sad because “Herbert Brandl is not with us.” He said Brandl had drawn inspiration from photographs of water and outer space while developing the curtain design.

Birnbaum said the abstract painting allowed for several perspectives: “Are we looking down? Up? Into the sky? Or into the sea?” He then quoted the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin: “One can also fall upwards.”

The original Iron Curtain was created by Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, an artist and NSDAP member who lived from 1902 to 1994. Adolf Hitler was also reportedly among admirers of his art. Since 1998, Eisenmenger’s motif “Orpheus and Eurydice” has been covered as part of an exhibition series featuring works by artists including David Hockney, Maria Lassnig and Anselm Kiefer.

Audiences are due to see Brandl’s curtain design for the first time on Wednesday evening, before and after a performance of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.