I really had had no intention of going to see the Gustave Klimt. (1862-1918). I had seen a retrospective of his work along side Egon Shiele (1890-1918) in 2008 (I think) and of course when in Vienna, we had visited and seen everything to do with the two artists. My association with his work, is very much this:-
 |
| Judith 1901 |
 |
| Salome, 1909 |
« Judith » (1901) is essentially a portrait of an end of century Viennese lady in an oriental costume. A seductress, a woman exuding a pure sensuality from every pore don’t you think ?
or Salome ……
or his erotica and the same goes with Egon Shiele.
After the Graffiti, I crossed the road to the other section of the Pinacothèque - there was no queue as there had been in the first months. I would chance it. I sailed in, praying that it would be the same situation as with the Graffiti. It was not crowded. However, this time around, there would be no photos. The control was obvious from every corner.
The idea was that the Pinacothèque would examine an essential aspect of Art Nouveau, which was developed in Vienna at the start of the 20th century under the name
Secession. Gustav Klimt's part in the emerging of that movement is a major one. The artist's talent and brio, from his precocious start to his excessive decorative effects, where gildings and the emerging expressionism are dominant and are the foundations of a new period, which flowered in Vienna at the turn of the century. That artistic movement is, in fact, at the origin of the birth, a few years later, of one of the major currents in modern art, Expressionism, which was the theme of an exhibition in the museum in 2011.
 |
| The Dreaming Boys, 1908 |
It was about ten years after the founding of the Secession in 1897, that a new generation of younger artists emerged. One whose work I always follow is Oskar Kokoschka. I had not seen this book of fairy tales, The Dreaming Boys (1908). I imagine that they did cause a full blown scandal. Strangely I have not been able to find too much on Internet about this.
The Art Nouveau building for the association was completed in 1897/98, and is still one of the best-known buildings in Vienna. The leafwork dome ("golden cabbage") is the symbol of the Secession and visible from a long way off.
Mounted above the entrance to the Secession is the motto of the artist’s association:
To each time its art. To art its freedom
I like that
Gustav Klimt’s "Beethoven Frieze" can be viewed on the basement level. The 34 meter-long work is a virtuoso interpretation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and was created by Klimt for an exhibition in 1902. The concept of the frieze is drawn from a text by Richard Wagner about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Klimt transferred images to the wall created in his imagination by his experience of this music. The last section of the frieze is dedicated to the arts, which « lead us onto the ideal realm, the only place where we can find pure joy, pure happiness, pure love ». Not bad eh?
 |
| Right hand panel |
 |
| Left hand panel |
 |
| The Arts Angels choir in Paradise The kiss |
The exhibition came as complete surprise to me as it relates the development in Viennese art from the end of the 19th century, beginning of the Viennese Secession, until the first years of Expressionism.
The core of the exhibition is based on a selection of major works by Gustav Klimt, from his first years of studying until the major works of his golden age, like Judith I (1901) . See above….
 |
| Portrait of a woman - 1894 |
 |
| Head of a young girl, 1898 |
 |
| Study for a woman with red background - 1897-98 |
and somewhat later.....
 |
| Philosophie - 2nd version, 1903 |
 |
| Medecine - 2nd version, 1903 |
 |
| Nude standing, 1898 |
 |
| Klimt, Nude sitting with long hair, 1917 |
or the Beethoven Frieze, a monumental work, reconstituted to scale and shown for the very first time in France. This I have shown above as it is in the Secession museum. However, a life size copy had been done for this exhibition, which I might add was very difficult to see as there was no room to stand back and admire the whole work.
There were artists that I knew but it wasn’t until this particular exhibition that the work fell into place. Take for example Koloman Moser, (1868-1918) - one of his paintings reminded me very much of this which I had seen in the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga.
 |
| Moser, pine forest in winter - 1907 |
 |
| Sanchez-Perrier - Winter in Andlusia - 1880 |
Moser was of course Austrian and one of the foremost artists of the Secession movement.
 |
| Moser, Mountain slopes, 1913 |
 |
| Moser, Profile of a woman, 1910 |
Elena Luksch-Malowska (18781967)— she may be new to me. Her name certainly doesn’t ring a bell.
Elena was the first woman to exhibit at the Viennese "Secession" in Austria and participated in multiple exhibitions in Germany, Hamburg. During the 1920s and 1930s she regularly exhibited at the Parisian Salons.
 |
| Luksch-Makowska - Adolescentia, 1903 |
Max Kurzwell (1867-1916) and his femme fragile…..
He was co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897
 |
| Max Kurzeil, Mira Bauer, 1908 |
 |
| Ferninand Andri - Peasants selling butter, 1902 |
Ferdinand Andri (1871-1956)— this I remember from Vienna. « Peasants selling butter » -1902
Julius Victor Berger ( 1850-1902) with a painting done in 1901 and where you can see the Secession in the background .
He was an Austrian painter who is known primarily for his genre paintings and portraits.
 |
| Berger, 1901 |
So many of the paintings show the different artistic personalities who influenced Klimt’s art and are summoned up thanks to a choice of paintings coming from the Belvedere. I would be very happy to go back to that museum now and really look closer at the work. The exhibition shows important masterpieces from the Secession and from the Austrian vanguard, such as the first works by Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.
 |
| Egon Schiele, Man lying on a bed, 1910 |
 |
| Kokoschka, Le Tresorier, 1910 (Early Expressionism) |
 |
| Egon Schiele, his wife,1917 |
A final section of the exhibition is devoted to Viennese art forms. There were some splendid ceramics, which I wouldn’t have wanted myself but the colors and themes were quite charming. By Michael Powolny (1871-1954) was the leading ceramic artist of that period.
 |
| Michael Powolny, Springtime 1907 |
 |
| Michael Powolny, Autumn, 1907 |
As the exhibition shows over 180 works taken from the collections of the Belvedere museum in Vienna ( and I only remembered one very clearly,
 |
| Moser - self portraint, 1916 - I remember this very well |
as well as from private collections), it looks as if I should be planning a trip back to that city.
Commentaires