The ancients stole all our great ideas

Book excerpt: Museums often ask artists to curate their 'private collections' from their inventory as exhibitions. One is reminded of the famous The Artist Eye series in which Hockney, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Bridget Riley put together their exhibition, or the historic exhibition Raid the Icebox, which Andy Warhol put together in 1969 from the collection of the Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design.This exhibition and catalogue promise to be just as interesting, as the artist/curator is one of the innovative and international esteemed painters, drawers, photographers, book-makers of our time and the Museum of Art History in Vienna with its Kunstkammer is one of the greatest treasure troves in the world. The only common thread connecting the exhibits is the eye of the artist.Published alongside the exhibition at The Museum of Art History in Vienna (25 September to 2 December 2012).English and German text.