Leopold Museum opens newly conceived permanent presentation: Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism

19.03.2019

Comprehensive exhibition illustrates the phenomenon of Vienna 1900 in all its creativity and complexity

The exhibition Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism has been conceived as the Leopold Museum’s new permanent presentation and affords insights into the enormous wealth and diversity of this era’s artistic and intellectual achievements with all their cultural, social, political and scientific implications. Based on the collection of the Leopold Museum compiled by Rudolf Leopold and complemented by select loans from more than 50 private and institutional collections, the exhibition curated by Hans-Peter Wipplinger conveys the atmosphere of the former metropolis Vienna in a unique manner and highlights the sense of departure characterized by contrasts prevalent at the turn of the century. The presentation spans three floors and features some 1,300 exhibits over more than 3,000 m2 of exhibition space, presenting a variety of media ranging from painting, graphic art, sculpture and photography, via glass, ceramics, metals, textiles, leather and jewelry, all the way to items of furniture and entire furnishings of apartments. The exhibition, whose thematic emphases are complemented by a great number of archival materials, spans the period of around 1870 to 1930.

Upheaval and departure in vibrant fin-de-siècle Vienna

At the turn of the century, Vienna was the breeding ground for an unprecedentedly fruitful intellectual life in the areas of arts and sciences. Paradoxically, this golden age coincided with increasing political and social power struggles and clashes of the nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. What made this phenomenon so especially unique is that it occurred in the most diverse disciplines, from painting and literature, via music, theater, dance and architecture, all the way to medicine, psychology, philosophy, jurisprudence and economy.

“The newly conceived permanent presentation aspires to showcase the phenomenon of Vienna 1900 in all its creativity and contradictory complexity. Around 1900 the vibrant Danube metropolis was shaped by contrasts: it was the capital of both the high nobility and of liberal intellectuals, of the splendid Ringstrasse and endless slum areas, of anti-Semitism and Zionism, of a rigid conservatism and emerging Modernism. Splendor and squalor, dream and reality, Symbolism and self-questioning characterized the existing pluralism of this time, marking Vienna as a laboratory of ideas, and thus as a motor to a turbulent movement of renewal. This heterogeneous atmosphere provided the setting for the unique consolidation of cultural efforts that today makes us look upon the period of Vienna around 1900 as a source of Modernism.” Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Heyday of Historicism and atmospheric landscape painting

The exhibition starts on the fourth floor of the Leopold Museum with an overture dedicated to the heyday of Viennese Historicism around 1870, featuring works by Hans Makart, Hans Canon and the artists’ association Künstler-Compagnie. Naturalistic paintings from Klimt’s early oeuvre are juxtaposed with sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso as well as portraits by Anton Romako and Franz von Lenbach. Also on display are reticent “Atmospheric Impressionist” landscape renderings and genre depictions by Emil Jakob Schindler, his friend and rival Tina Blau, Olga Wisinger-Florian and Theodor von Hörmann.

Founding of the Vienna Secession

“The founding of the Vienna Secession in 1897 must be seen against the background of Viennese Historicism and Atmospheric Impressionism. A veritable act of liberation, it stirred up the art scene and is considered the hour of birth of Austrian Modernism in the visual arts. The Viennese modernists – i.e. progressive artists like Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Alfred Roller, Carl Moll and Josef Hoffmann – wanted to permeate all areas of life with art in keeping with the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or universal work of art, and placed the applied arts on a par with the fine arts. This gave rise to the concept of the Wiener Werkstätte founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Fritz Waerndorfer,” according to Hans-Peter Wipplinger.

In the presentation, paintings by Giovanni Segantini and Ferdinand Hodler, as well as sculptures by Max Klinger and Franz von Stuck, illustrate the animated exchange of the Viennese avant-garde with international artists. Works by Emil Orlik, Carl Moll, Broncia Koller-Pinell, Wilhelm List, Josef Maria Auchentaller, Erich Mallina and Alexander Rothaug highlight the stylistic diversity at the Vienna Secession, with tendencies ranging from post-Impressionism via Symbolism to Japonism.

Dance, psychology, fashion, photography

Along with innovations in the visual arts, the exhibition also highlights revolutionary aspects from other artistic and cultural fields, among them the liberation of dance from the tradition of the classical ballet to become an autonomous art form owing to the activities of artists like the Wiesenthal sisters, Gertrud Bodenwieser and Rosalia Chladek. Sigmund Freud’s trailblazing works, especially his 1899 publication The Interpretation of Dreams, are also addressed on account of their far-reaching consequences. Viennese fashion, which overcame the restraints imposed by the corset with the reform dress, features with creations by the fashion pioneer Emilie Flöge, while the at the time still relatively young medium of photography is represented with works by Dora Kallmus, Moriz Nähr and Heinrich Kühn.

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt’s artistic development from a representative of Historicism to a founding member of the Secession is retraced in the exhibition through chief works from the museum’s collection as well as eminent permanent loans from private collections. Numerous landscapes, the singular allegory addressing the cycle of life Death and Life, as well the scandal caused by the faculty paintings provide the exhibition’s focus. It further touches upon Klimt’s close friendship with Emilie Flöge who shaped fashion as a designer and was an important figure of the era’s creative set.

Arts and Crafts School and Wiener Werkstätte

The priority of the Wiener Werkstätte was the promotion of a new lifestyle permeated by art. Considered the most eminent examples of the Gesamtkunstwerk on account of their complex designs, Josef Hoffmann’s Sanatorium Westend in Purkersdorf, the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, as well as the Cabaret Fledermaus in Vienna, which was also designed by Josef Hoffmann and furnished by the Wiener Werkstätte, feature in the exhibition with architectural models and items of original furniture. Numerous creations by artists from the Arts and Crafts School, the present-day University of Applied Arts, and the Wiener Werkstätte, including items of jewelry, glasses, ceramics, tableware, textiles, book and poster designs, examples of paper marbling, playing cards and leather products, illustrate how design and crafts were merged to an incredibly high standard.

Vienna as a metropolis of architecture – Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Adolf Loos

On the third floor, Vienna is presented as a metropolis of architecture, with a focus on the architect, theoretician and town planner Otto Wagner and on the essayist and architect Adolf Loos. A room on the fourth floor featuring furniture ensembles is dedicated to Koloman Moser. Also on display is one of the most eminent museum acquisitions of recent years: the room designed by the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann in keeping with the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk for the daughter of the industrialist Max Biach from 1902.

Austrian Expressionism
Richard Gerstl, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka – Arnold Schönberg

The adjacent exhibition rooms are devoted to the variants of a specifically Austrian Expressionism characterized by a simmering Symbolism and the questioning of the individual. Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Anton Faistauer, Max Oppenheimer, Anton Kolig, Albin Egger-Lienz, Albert Paris Gütersloh and Herbert Boeckl are among this movement’s most important exponents. The two rooms to be dedicated to Oskar Kokoschka won’t be furnished until after the large-scale retrospective shown at the Leopold Museum from 6th April to 8th July 2019. They currently house an exhibition of Arnold Schönberg’s visual oeuvre curated by Therese Muxeneder of the Arnold Schönberg Center. Richard Gerstl’s expressive, gestural painting, which in some of his works led to a dissolution of forms, makes him the first exponent of Austrian Expressionism. The Leopold Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of works by the artist and presents self-portraits, portraits and landscapes by Gerstl. The oeuvre of Egon Schiele is presented in the context of Austrian Expressionism. Comprising 42 paintings and more than 180 works on paper, as well as autographs, poems and photographs, the Leopold Museum houses the most eminent and extensive compilation of works by this artist.

Art and war – pluralism of styles

The permanent presentation continues on the ground floor. The generation of artists surrounding Egon Schiele experienced the War on the battlefields. Many of them had been caught up in the general enthusiasm for the War, but their euphoria soon gave way to disillusionment or even bitter opposition to war. This is illustrated in the exhibition with numerous works by artists including Anton Hanak, Albin Egger-Lienz and Anton Kolig.

New Objectivity and Magic Realism

The exhibition affords comprehensive insights into the first decade of the young Austrian Republic with its moderate tendencies towards Expressionism and New Objectivity. In the 1920s, innovative impulses were increasingly prevented by the economic instability which promoted the establishment of authoritarian and fascist ideas. Along with works by Carry Hauser, Otto Rudolf Schatz, Josef Dobrowsky, Albert Birkle, Alfred Wickenburg, Josef Gassler, Viktor Planckh and Sergius Pauser, who are among the main representatives of New Objectivity in Austria, the exhibition also features the work La Femme aux Roses by Greta Freist who had repeatedly showcased her works in the exhibitions of the Hagenbund. Magic Realism is characterized by a fantastical-surreal undertone, with the depicted scenes often appearing melancholy and menacing. Rudolf Wacker, an exponent of this movement, combined rational reality with a world shaped by secrets, dreams and hallucinations.

“The fragile democracy was headed for ruin. The deposition of parliament and the appointment of an authoritarian government, the ban of the social democratic party and the establishment of an Austrofascist corporate state provided an ideal breeding ground for National Socialism. Some visual artists identified this danger early on. Others aided the propaganda and would later become convinced members of the NSDAP. Eventually, a large number of those leading figures from art, music, literature and science who had played a substantial part in the golden age of Viennese Modernism were either forced into emigration or murdered.” Hans-Peter Wipplinger

Select works from the field of memorial art highlight these fatal developments and represent the ominous and visionary end to the exhibition: Peter Weibel’s installation The Expulsion of Reason addresses the cultural exodus and the systematic extermination of the Jewish population, while two works by Heimrad Bäcker refer to the totality of the National Socialist’s killing machine.

The museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger invited a panel of experts to support this exhibition project through various symposia held in 2018 at the Leopold Museum. This body of experts includes Andrea Amort (dance), Bazon Brock (esthetics), Monika Faber (photography), Allan Janik (philosophy and economics), Stefan Kutzenberger (literature), Diethard Leopold (genesis of the collection), Monika Meister (theater), Therese Muxeneder (music), Ernst Ploil (applied arts), Ivan Ristić (architecture), August Ruhs (psychology), Burghart Schmidt (philosophy) and Thomas Zaunschirm (art history).

A comprehensive catalogue accompanying the exhibition will be published in June 2019, edited by Hans-Peter Wipplinger, with essays by Andrea Amort, Bazon Brock, Heike Eipeldauer, Verena Gamper, Allan Janik, Stefan Kutzenberger, Diethard Leopold, Monika Meister, Therese Muxeneder, Burghart Schmidt, Ernst Ploil, Ivan Ristić, August Ruhs, Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Thomas Zaunschirm (560 pages, c. 1,000 illustrations, German/English in separate editions, published by Walther König publishers, EUR 49.90.-).

Opening ceremony

The exhibition’s opening ceremony, conducted by Federal Minister Gernot Blümel and Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger in the presence of Managing Director Gabriele Langer, was attended by more than 2,000 visitors, among them Elisabeth Leopold, Josef Ostermayer, Diethard, Waltraud and Gerda Leopold, the ambassadors Ghislain d’Hoop, Marieta García Jordàn (Cuba), Jolanta Róż Kozłowska (Poland), Agnes and Peter Husslein, Carl Aigner, Bazon Brock, August Ruhs, Stefan Kutzenberger, Therese Muxeneder, Monika Meister, Andrea Amort, Ernst and Brigitte Ploil, Wolfgang Georg and Jutta Fischer, Peter Weinhäupl and Sandra Tretter, Edelbert and Angelika Köb, Karlheinz Essl and Agnes Essl, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, Christian Brandstätter, Helmut Klewan and Regina Götz, Walter Freller, Julius Hummel, Hans Knoll, Anni Fuchs, Elke Königseder, Feli Herberstein and Linus Klumpner, Maria Rauch-Kallat, Marianne Kirstein-Jacobs with her granddaughter Zoe Vartyan, Barbara Grötschnig, Leopold Birstinger, Thomas Mondl, Brigitte Blaha, Wolfgang Nolz, Karl Sevelda, Kerstin Jesse, Robert Fleck, Roman Grabner, Uwe Schögl, Alexandra Matzner and Werner Telesko, Thomas Palme, Rudolf Goessl, Walter Vopava, Lorenz Estermann, Edgar Honetschläger, Hans Kupelwieser, Hubert Scheibl, Barbara and Anton Heldwein, Ralf-Wolfgang Lothert, Brigitte Huber-Mader, Angelika Möser, Anton Schmölzer, and many others.

Photo galleries of the opening night
© Andreas Tischler: https://we.tl/t-4JHqMjKL7j
© Leopold Museum, Wien/APA-Fotoservice/Tanzer: https://www.apa-fotoservice.at/galerie/17080

 

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