Modern Art - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2012 - 70 Euro Cent

He is often referred to as the "ball of balls" and is considered the social highlight of the carnival season: the Vienna Opera Ball. Prominent guests from Germany and abroad, representatives from politics, business, culture and sports visit this exquisite event year after year - in line with the well-liked motto "See and be seen". History: The first ball festivals, which were not the K. k. Hof-Operntheater next to the Kärntnertor, but the performers working on this stage appeared as organizers, so to speak seamlessly connected to the feudal festivals of the Congress of Vienna. Many balls took place in the countless Viennese establishments at the beginning of the 19th century, but the artists wanted a more intimate setting for their festivals and soon found an ideal solution, namely in the redoubt halls of the imperial Hofburg. After many decadent decades and the fall of the empire in 1918, the young republic then remembered the imperial festivals in the opera house with astonishing speed. Already on January 21, 1921, the first operatic redoubt of the Republic of Austria could be held, and in January 1935, the first, now so named "Vienna Opera Ball" took place - a magic word whose effect did not fail even in the pale light of the 1930s. On the eve of the Second World War, a last opera ball was held in 1939 on orders from the Reich government in meanwhile occupied Austria. After the resurrection of the republic and overcoming the first years of starvation in bombed Vienna, the festive reopening of the opera house destroyed in the war was celebrated in November 1955. On February 9, 1956, the elegant house was transformed into the radiant opera ballroom for the first time in the Second Republic. The special stamp now on display forms the prelude to the interesting series "Young Art in Austria". In this series, the contemporary art of young creative philatelic be appreciated and made available in its imaginative diversity to a wider audience. It all starts with the work "wind up dancer" by Zoé Byland, which was chosen as the subject for the poster for the 2012 Vienna Opera Ball. The native Swiss studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, class for contextual painting. In 2007, the artist living in Vienna and Bern received the Fügerpreis for painting and graphics.