Review: Facing The Modern - The Portrait Inwards Vienna 1900

Detail from 'Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl', 1917-18
past times Gustav Klimt
© Belvedere, Vienna
Donated past times Vita as well as Gustav Künstler

Facing the Modern - The Portrait inwards Vienna 1900 opens to the populace tomorrow at the National Gallery (Facebook) inwards London.  The exhibition is beingness held inwards the Sainsbury Wing (Level -2).

The exhibition is nearly the evolution of portraiture at the plow of the century (1900) inwards Vienna. This was a fourth dimension when the multiculturalism which had acquire dominant inwards Vienna was helping to redefine portrait ikon as well as what styles could hold out employed when creating a portrait - or a self-portrait.

You tin see some of the industrial plant on display on the website. The exhibition includes paintings that don't displace rattling oftentimes from their homes inwards the Galerie Belvedere in Vienna or other populace as well as individual collections as well as at that topographic point receive got been some generous loans. Plus it also includes the decease masks of Beethoven, Mahler, Klimt as well as Schiele!

Below I've given an overview of the exhibition - addition included links to the Belvedere website as well as others which supply resources related to the fine art inwards this exhibition.

Who should see this exhibition

I highly recommend this exhibition to:

• portrait artists of every persuasion - from those who prefer rattling detailed realistic rendering to those who pursue expressionism.
• those interested inwards European fine art history.  It includes 3 rattling of import artists associated with the Vienna Secessionism motion - Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and early expressionism Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980).  Links inwards the names are to WikiPaintings where you lot tin meet a lot to a greater extent than of their art.

I liked it - as well as explicate why below.

Scope of the Exhibition

The exhibition explores a pivotal menstruation of the life of the metropolis of Vienna. As uppercase of the Austro-Hungarian empire

The rooms inside the Exhibition are equally follows

Room 1: The Old Viennese - paintings of the ancestors.  A fictional household unit of measurement for the novel Viennese  who poured into Vienna from across the Austro-Hungarian empire.  These portraits are typically exceptionally skilled as well as rendered inwards non bad detail.  There's an exceptionally fine tiny ikon past times Klimt which I absolutely loved.

The view equally you lot come inwards Room 1: The Old Viennese

Room 2: The Family as well as the Child.  Paintings of the household unit of measurement as well as children inside the context of what was happening inwards Vienna at the time.  You demand to read the catalogue to sympathize what was happening inwards Vienna at the fourth dimension as well as why the dwelling as well as the household unit of measurement became a identify of refuge as well as recess for many Jewish families.

Room 3: The Appeal of the Artist.  Paintings of the creative someone - many self-portraits. Demonstrating the notion that the self-portrait was a means of declaring prowess inwards price of technical skills as well as artistic allegiances - of marketing one's fine art inside a rattling competitive environment.  Also the self-portrait was a means of experimenting with the rattling nature of portraiture.

Some of the paintings are rattling powerful - such equally the small-scale self-portrait past times Schiele (see below). The to a greater extent than I looked at it the to a greater extent than I was persuaded that this ikon was created past times foremost ikon inwards stone oil as well as hence rubbing off as well as removing pigment - there's a clear pollex impress inwards 1 fleck of the painting.  Whatever his technique it's highly effective.  This in all probability the smallest ikon inwards the room as well as soundless it leaps off the wall as well as demands attention.

Self Portrait with raised bare shoulder 1912
past times Egon Schiele - painted historic menstruation 22
stone oil on wood, 42.2 x 33.9
© Leopold Museum Private Foundation, Vienna

Room 4: The New Viennese (one of the portrait gallery corridors)

Room 4: The New Viennese.  The principal room inwards the Sainsbury Wing Gallery had been divided inwards 2 to create 2 broad corridors - or pic galleries - where portraits of the people who were novel to Vienna are hung.  Most only non all are commissions. Portraiture was a means of describing who you lot are inwards the novel Vienna.  However household unit of measurement as well as friends also contributed to the evolution of portraiture at the time.

Room 5: Love as well as Loss - drawings of people who are dying as well as dead
In the foreground are the decease masks of Mahler, Klimt, Schiele as well as Loos

Room 5: Love as well as Loss.  Rather a deplorable room equally everybody inwards it is either already dead or inwards the procedure of dying.  It tackles the theme of making a pic of somebody after their death.  It also highlights the comport on of the flu pandemic as well as the exceptionally high suicide charge per unit of measurement amongst the assimilated Jewish youth which led to a symposium, chaired past times Sigmund Freud, to endeavor as well as sympathize the reasons for this.

There's a rattling deplorable story nearly the committee Klimt accepted to pigment a portrait of Ria Munk III next her decease (she shot herself inwards the catch next a failed beloved affair).  The 1 below is unfinished only was accepted past times the parents who had rejected 2 before versions.  I institute it a non bad means to sympathize how Klimt painted his paintings

Posthumous portrait of Ria Munk III 1917-18
past times Gustav Klimt
stone oil on canvas, 180.7 x 89.9cm
© Property of The Lewis Collection

Room 6: Finish as well as Failure

Room 6: Finish as well as Failure. This room includes paintings which are unfinished past times both Klimt as well as Kokoshka.  In business office because of the state of war as well as hence - inwards Klimt's illustration - because he died.  I learned that he used to produce a lot of preparatory drawings - as well as at that topographic point are 2 on display. It was suggested that this demonstrates an interactive procedure where the model (commissioning the painting) create upwards one's hear how she wants to hold out represented as well as gets to experiment as well as endeavor things out inwards partnership with the creative someone (eg to arch the eyebrow or not!)

Kokoshka past times means of contrast evidently felt his means some a portrait using thinned stone oil pigment as well as a brush

You tin read the story of the ikon which dominates the room on the Belvedere website - meet Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl (if you lot purpose Chrome as well as the minute interpret facility).  It's believed that she died inwards Theresienstadt, 1 of the concentration camps inwards WW2.

Why see this exhibition

Here's some reasons to see this exhibition.

First, it takes an odd approach as well as displays 2 quite dissimilar kinds of fine art amongst 1 some other - from either side of the dissever that was as well as is 1900.

The Historicism approach of the nineteenth century is shown amongst paintings of early on expressionism equally seen inwards Vienna.  These are links to the relevant artists as well as styles of ikon some nearly 1900 on the Belvedere website

• Fin de siècle as well as Viennese Secession
• Expressionism
• Expressionism
• Oskar Kokokschka
• Egon Schiele

I institute the contrast inwards portrait styles to hold out stimulating. For me, it highlighted to a greater extent than clearly the similarities as well as the differences.  I institute myself studying the dissimilar techniques employed to create dissimilar effects.

While for the most business office it contrasts the operate of dissimilar artists, it also highlights the contrasts to hold out institute inside the portfolio of an creative someone - witness the portraits past times Klimt below painted 10 years apart.

Changes inwards the portraiture of Gustav Klimt
Left: Portrait of Hermine Gallia, 1904
stone oil on canvas, 170.5 x 96.5 cm, National Gallery
Right: Portrait of a lady inwards black c.1894
stone oil on canvas, 155 x 75cm, Belvedere - loan from a individual collection

It's an exhibition which also reflects a province as well as a metropolis inwards flux.  In effect, the exhibition is a portrait of a city.  That metropolis is Vienna - the uppercase of the Austro-Hungarian empire which is coming to an end.  It's an empire of many nations as well as many dissimilar cultures.  As the uppercase of a novel empire Vienna grew tremendously during the nineteenth century. By 1910 it was a metropolis of 2 1000000 people as well as the quaternary largest inwards the globe - as well as the tensions associated with that multiculturalism were showing.  It was a metropolis where rigid anti-Semitic feelings were expressed nearly Jewish people - as well as their portraits - on a regular basis.

It struck me that at that topographic point were quite a lot of similarities betwixt Vienna as well as London directly - as well as I idea it a compassion that at that topographic point weren't to a greater extent than events which addressed issues of multi-culturalism as well as its comport on on assimilation as well as integration - as well as portraiture

There are lots of endings inwards the exhibition - as well as novel beginnings. The exhibition effectively ends inwards 1918 - a yr inwards which:

• a century ended 
• The foremost World War - the state of war to destination all wars - came to an end. The Austria-Hungary collapsed equally a result

Portrait of Edith Schiele, dying
28 Oct 1918 - she died 3 hours later
past times Egon Schiele
(who died 3 days afterward on 31 Oct 1918)
Both were victims of the Castilian Influenza pandemic
Black chalk on newspaper 44 x 29.7cm
© Leopold Museum Private Foundation, Vienna

Both Klimt as well as Schiele died inwards 1918

• Klimt died on half dozen Feb 1918 of a stroke followd past times pneumonia
• Schiele died on 31 Oct 1918, 3 days after his wife. Both he as well as his married adult woman were victims of the Castilian Influenza pandemic

It's an fantabulous means of learning nearly the context of painters 1 knows nearly - without genuinely knowing equally good much!

I came away liking Klimt fifty-fifty to a greater extent than than I did already - as well as I demand to report him some more.  Watch this infinite equally they say!

The catalogue has a number of useful essays nearly the themes as well as sub-themes of the exhibition

Events associated with the Exhibition

You tin honour details of all the events associated with the exhibition on the website.  A number of them are complimentary only you lot produce demand to mass inwards advance.

There's a lunchtime speak past times the curator on Tuesday 22 October, 1–1.45pm inwards the Sainsbury Wing Theatre

Credits

This exhibition is:

• curated past times Dr Gemma Blackshaw, Associate Professor History of Art as well as Visual Culture at Plymouth as well as invitee curator at the National Gallery
• organised past times the National Gallery, London
• sponsored past times Credit Suisse equally business office of its partnership with the National Gallery since 2008. It's worth noting that Credit Suisse are also the people who sponsor the belatedly nighttime opening of the National Gallery
• The events programme for 'Facing the Modern: The Portrait inwards Vienna 1900' is kindly supported past times Martin Halusa

Links:

• National Gallery on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thenationalgallery
• Belvedere on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/belvederewien

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