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Phil Gordos

From A(rt) to Z(idane)


Vienna

Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. Yesterday I didn't. Abstract art divides opinion like the Fifa ranking system. Still, Vienna is looking to cash in on Euro 2008 by attracting football fans to its numerous museums and galleries.

I've been to a few football-themed exhibitions already - and very good they are, too - but I decided to branch out a little on Wednesday. I don't mind of bit of Rothko - I have one of his prints on my wall at home - so thought I'd go and see some more of his work at the BA-CA Kunstforum. It was a bad move.

I tried not to be dismissive, but I just couldn't "relate" to most of pictures hanging on the all-white walls. There was a Monet, which was nice, and a Kandinsky, but some of the stuff was, well, let's not go there...

It'll be interesting to find out just how many extra visitors have taken in the many sights that Vienna has to offer during Euro 2008. We've had the usual puns about Dutch masters, but maybe the Kunsthistorisches Museum, home to works by van Dyck, Rubens and van Eyck, will have to wait until the oranje wave hits town to see a noticeable rise in figures.

The closest I've seen art and football becoming one was when Zinedine Zidane was still playing. I loved watching him strut his stuff. Just don't expect any cliches or contrived chat about deft flicks and painting a picture with his feet.

Zidane will be in Vienna later this week as part of his ongoing commitments to adidas. He'll be giving a footballing masterclass to a group of lucky prize winners.

Then he'll be speaking to the media. No doubt he'll be fielding a stream of questions about France's sad demise.

Phil Gordos is a senior broadcast journalist at BBC Sport Interactive. Please check our FAQs if you have any questions.


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  • 1. At 01:37am on 20 Jun 2008, Falco_peregrinus wrote:

    "Dyck, Rubens and van Eyck" Are all from Belgium. Just saying.

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  • 2. At 06:51am on 20 Jun 2008, quickquip wrote:

    Rubens was a Dutch master, as were van Dyck, one of his star pupils, and the earlier van Eyck. They were all in the Netherlandish school tradition. Rubens was actually born, out of wedlock, in Siegen in Westphalia and didn't remove to Antwerp until he was twelve, at which time the area around Flanders was known as the Southern Netherlands or Spanish Netherlands. The current border between Belgium and Holland wasn't set until after Ruben's death in 1640. At various times over the centuries, Flanders or the Southern Netherlands came under Spanish, Austrian and French rule. At the end of French rule in 1815, there was briefly a United Kingdom of the Netherlands before the 1830 Belgian Revolution led to an independent country of Belgium. It's a bit complicated but no doubt Zidane will be fielding a stream of questions about all this at his press conference on master artists, Dutch and otherwise, later this week.

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