David Hockney at the Vienna State Opera // Gwenael P._Week 7

At the Vienna State Opera, the show is not only on the stage -or within the magnificent monument rebuilt after the Second World War- but also with the Safety Curtain.

Indeed, since 1998, the Vienna State Opera –in collaboration with the City Theater of Vienna- has decided every year to commission international contemporary artists to create a temporary Safety Curtain at the opera. This year, for the 15^th times, it’s the famous contemporary artist David Hockney who created the safety curtain with an Ipad –currently, his favorite gadget to paint his new creations-. He is familiar with this kind of creation because he used to work with La Scala in Milan or the MET in NYC.

The author of A Bigger Splash creats a painting 176m^{2 ,} titled “Wiena Opera” and very colourful (lot of pink, blue and orange)

The first artist who created an original safety curtain was Kara Walker in 1998. Previous artists commissioned include Cy Twombly, Richard Hamilton, Rikrit Tiravanjia or Cerith Wyn Evans.

The list of the Safety Curtain since 1998