(from the press release www.ots.at dated 29 June 2024, Anne Kathrin Feßler)

On June 28, 2024, City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler, on behalf of Mayor Michael Ludwig, awarded the art historian Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat the Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the State of Vienna in the Coat of Arms Hall of Vienna City Hall.

The ceremony was musically accompanied by the Art4Strings string quartet, which performed pop classics such as Neil Diamond's "I'm a Believer" and "Reach" by S Club 7.

In her thanks to the pioneer of gender studies in the discipline of art history, City Councilor for Culture Veronica Kaup-Hasler emphasized that in researching the male-dominated construction of images, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat had "worked on a reorganization, indeed on a new way of seeing, and ensured that this consistently critical, consistently differentiated, and feminist perspective is reflected in the next generation." Kaup-Hasler thanked the scholar for her commitment, "clearly opposing a simplistic dichotomous thinking, hasty attributions, and a lack of listening. Because this has become so dominant in our time that it is a threat to democracy and endangers our coexistence. The ability to think in a differentiated way is sharpened by people like Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat."

Dear City Councilor for Culture, dear Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, dear family and friends of those being honored today, dear guests!

A harmonious color scheme of blue-green and ochre tones. In between, colorful, primarily red, splashes of color. I recognize a vast, hilly landscape. The image depicts a folk festival-like hustle and bustle. Only upon closer inspection do I discover the actual event, tiny in the center. It shows a man collapsed under a cross. People are paying no attention to the dramatic events; the murder of non-believers seems too omnipresent, as numerous gallows wheels in the image illustrate. Despite its sacred subject matter, this is a highly political image, closely related to the events of its time of creation, but still seems extremely relevant today. Especially when I consider the violence and armed conflicts currently taking place around the world in connection with polarizing black-and-white thinking and the non-acceptance of diversity and otherness.

Contemplating the significance of the scholar being honored today is impossible without immersing myself in the world of the paintings she deals with. I didn't choose this 1564 work from the Kunsthistorisches Museum by chance. It was painted by an artist closely associated with Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat's research: Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Bruegel's "Carrying the Cross" is also the first work of art I was privileged to see through the eyes of the scholar being honored today as a student over 35 years ago. This radically changed and decisively shaped my perspective on art, on art history, and indeed on the world as a whole. And I certainly wouldn't be standing here today had I not met this extraordinary scholar. Through analyzing this Bruegel painting, I learned a great deal from Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat. Much that goes far beyond art history. Countless other young people have experienced the same thing as me. Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat taught me that the production and reception of art is among the most exciting and meaningful things life has to offer. Above all, I understood that art history is deeply connected to all areas of human existence. Through its image analyses, the world becomes tangible in all its complexity, in all its beauty, in all its cruelty, in all its contradictions. Using Cranach's "Lucretia," Titian's "Danae," Tintoretto's "Susanna and the Elders," Rembrandt's "Family Portrait," Segantini's "Wicked Mothers," Bruegel's "The Big Fish Eat the Little Ones," Hodler's series of dying Valentine Godé-Darel, and Vermeer's portraits of women, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat explores timeless yet highly topical themes: She writes about sexuality, gender constructions, violence against women, family relationships, economic inequalities, power relations, life and death—and above all, media-related issues such as the relationship between image and visible reality, between the visual and the verbal.

Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat's research is so important for society because, in her approach of "art history as cultural studies," she demonstrates that images play a decisive role in constituting reality, just as works of art can never be seen in isolation from the economic, social, political, gender-specific, and linguistic realities of a society. Despite situating it within historical and sociopolitical contexts, she always allows art to be art. She approaches art and artists with the greatest possible appreciation and attentiveness. This is also reflected in the fact that her theses are preceded by detailed descriptions of the images. She consistently points out that visual art has qualities that are unparalleled. In her research, she demonstrates that art can put its finger on sore spots. That it can visualize things that are repressed or hidden by society. She writes: "Art can make the invisible visible. But it also has the ability to make things, people, concepts, or ideas invisible in certain contexts, to erase them from the field of representation and thus from our consciousness." As this quote from her last major work reflects, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat formulates her thoughts in precise and modest language. She never places herself at the center of her research. The vanity that sometimes speaks from academic texts is completely absent from her work. At the same time, she never hides behind apparent scientific objectivity, but always makes it clear that science is always about attitudes, values, people, and their respective specific perspectives on reality.

Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat is quite rightly celebrated by both scholars and artists as a pioneer of feminist art studies, like a pop star. Her YouTube lectures reach an enormously broad audience, inspiring people who are not normally interested in art history.

Vienna is honoring an icon of art history today, and I can't imagine anyone more deserving of this Golden Decoration of Honor than her. Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, born in 1946 in Venezuela, where her Jewish family had fled the Nazis, came to Vienna from Switzerland in 1968 to study art history under Otto Pächt. And fortunately for this city, she lives and works here to this day. Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat has profoundly enriched the intellectual life of Vienna, and indeed of Austria as a cultural country, as a sharp thinker, critical contemporary, and outstanding art historian. With her research and publications—from her dissertation on "Hieronymus Bosch" and her habilitation "Studies on the History of Gender Relations in Art" to her magnum opus "The Visible and the Invisible," published in 2009. Also through numerous symposia and lectures, but above all through decades of teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, later also at the University of Vienna and other renowned international universities. Her school produced important scholars, some of whom are still here today. Many artists have created works directly or indirectly influenced by Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat's teaching and research. Enumerating her academic achievements is far from sufficient to characterize what makes Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat the outstanding personality for which she is valued and admired by so many.

Daniela, this decoration of honor is more deserved by you than I can even begin to put into words today. Because for you, your achievements as an innovative art historian, as a crystal-clear author, as a captivating speaker, as a passionate teacher, as a consistently politically engaged and critical contemporary, as a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, and as an appreciative friend form an inseparable whole. Courage and a clear, political stance are essential to you. We need this now – after the EU elections and the increasing global shift to the right – more than ever. More than once, I have seen you take an unequivocal stand in delicate situations and fight tough battles in various professional contexts, even when they harmed you personally, because you always uncompromisingly stood up for what is important to you and what you consider necessary in life. Art, in particular, has always been an example for you to cultivate tolerance of ambiguity. Something that seems particularly valuable, especially in times when polarizing black-and-white thinking has rapidly increased in politics, society, and social media. What characterizes you is your ability to engage in dialogue and the always open, critical conversation you seek with your counterparts. This also includes your high degree of openness to criticism yourself. We have worked together extensively in recent years; for example, you wrote texts for our exhibitions "Family Matters" and "Rich and Poor." I've experienced how deeply you engage with everything you do; this applies to art, but also to the people you collaborate with. I've never before experienced someone as legendary in their field as you are so open to criticism of their statements. Conversely, you challenge your counterparts to the highest degree, for example, by critically questioning your counterpart shortly before the opening of an exhibition why I chose a particular work of art that doesn't convince you. The greatness of your personality is reflected in the fact that your initial skepticism can sometimes turn into enthusiasm if your interlocutor's arguments seem convincing enough.

Daniela, for decades you have impressively demonstrated to everyone who has dealt with you, both privately and professionally, what it means to approach life with the greatest possible intensity and sincerity. Even if that means facing one's own finiteness with full awareness. In the conversation we had last year for the catalog of our current exhibition "To Be Mortal," you formulated the striking sentence: "The worst thing is not to die, but not to have lived."

Daniela, you are rightly being honored today because you have always made decisions in life and in science. And because you make them according to criteria you define yourself, not those imposed by a performance-oriented, neoliberal society. Even today, when I am faced with a decision myself, I remember how you declined the offer of a highly prestigious C4 professorship in Frankfurt in the 1990s and stayed in Vienna. In a position that was far below what you deserved. Unimaginable for male scientists of your generation, but one of the greatest strokes of luck for this city.

You also made wise decisions in your private life, showing us all how to be happy with one person, with Ivo, for life. You were and remain a role model for many women, because at a time when this was much more difficult than today, you showed us that it is possible to combine science and family by having your wonderful sons Lukas and Matthias and raising them lovingly together with Ivo. At the same time, you didn't sugarcoat the difficult balance of family and career, but instead shared your struggle with us as young women. Despite all the passion with which you pursue your work, you have always been a support to others, including nurturing friendships with appreciation. It is a gift to have you as a collaborator, as a teacher, as a friend—and, as I understand from your family, as a wife, as a mother, and as a doting grandmother. On behalf of the guests present, I thank you for what you mean to each and every one of us. I thank you for everything you have done for art history, cultural studies, the art scene, the city of Vienna, the country of Austria, and far beyond. And I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart on this honor.

Vienna, June 28, 2024, © Johanna Schwanberg

Dear City Councilor, dear guests,

I cannot tell you how delighted I am by this honor from the City of Vienna. And Johanna Schwanberg's laudatory speech leaves me speechless. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I also see this honor as recognition of an alternative art history, which I have championed for years and decades: an art history as history of representation (Kulturwissenschaft) that always sees art in its social context, not as a reflection, but as an active participation in the perception and, at the same time, formation of our reality.

The significance of art—of the visual arts, film, literature, and other art forms—lies in the complexity of experience, in the possibility of depicting and making tangible infinitely complicated relationships in human relationships, but also in social and political relationships, in their ambiguity, with all their often irresolvable contradictions.

My teaching goal was to find ways to enable students to gain a deeper understanding of the world and themselves through intensive engagement with art and visual media; guided by the realization that a thorough examination of works is not enough, but that art can only be understood within the visual tradition and in a discursive and historical context.

I am convinced that the significance of this perspective and this attitude extends far beyond the observation and analysis of art, especially at a time when political discourse is becoming increasingly radicalized, where two sides are increasingly irreconcilably opposed to each other. The more complex the conflicts, the simpler the solutions should be, the louder the calls to choose one side and condemn the other. As a Jew, I am particularly sensitive to the catastrophe currently unfolding in Israel and Gaza. This tragedy, in all its complexity and contradictions, can only be roughly understood and evaluated if one goes far back into history and seeks to understand all the parties involved in their respective contexts.

I am grateful to be able to live in a country where – at least not currently – there is no war, in one of the most livable cities in the world. As the daughter of refugees, this is not something I can take for granted. I don't want to end without thanking the many colleagues who have contributed to the development of gender studies and cultural studies, without whom I wouldn't be here. I can't name them all, but I would like to express my particular gratitude to one person who has always supported and motivated me, critically edited all my texts, and, in countless museum visits and conversations, with his special approach to the materiality of art and his exceptional expertise, has inspired me to consider alternative perspectives: my husband, Ivo Hammer.

High-level gathering on 21 November 2022 from 14:30-18:00 in Brno, Czech Republic. Tugendhat House

Programme:

14:30 Arrival and guided tour through Villa Tugendhat (Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat and Ivo Hammer)

16:00-17:00 High-level panel discussion

Opening remarks by

- Monika Ladmanova, Head of Representation of the European Commission in Czech Republic

- Martin Selmayr, Head of Representation of the European Commission in Austria

Panellists

- Martina Dlabajová, Member of the European Parliament

- Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

- Ivo Hammer, Conservator-Restorer, Art Historian and Professor em. at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts

- Vlastislav Ouroda, Deputy Minister for Culture of the Czech Republic

Moderated by

- Martin Selmayr, Head of Representation of the European Commission in Austria 

17:00-18:00 Reception

The New European Bauhaus (NEB) is a creative and interdisciplinary initiative of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. It connects the European Green Deal to our living spaces and experiences. The initiative calls on all of us to imagine and build together a sustainable and inclusive future that is beautiful for our eyes, minds, and souls.

Architectural purity, interconnection of interior and exterior, timeless technical equipment, noble and exotic materials and, above all, a high level of preservation – these are the main attributes that led Villa Tugendhat to being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. Designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Villa Tugendhat was built in 1929–1930 as a family home for Grete and Fritz Tugendhat. Its further history is at least as fascinating as its cultural significance, since it has become Brno’s icon of modernist housing and occupies a prominent position globally and within the oeuvre of its architect.

Our gathering “The New European Bauhaus: beauty, sustainability and cultural heritage through the prism of Villa Tugendhat” will, against the backdrop of this emblematic property, explore the goals, philosophy and perspectives of the New European Bauhaus initiative, illustrating and reimagining sustainable living in Europe and beyond. (Martin Selmayr, Head of Representation of the European Commission in Austria)