Schiele’s muse: Leopold Museum opens Wally exhibition Hundreds of opening guests honoring the famous artist’s model Wally Neuzil

26.02.2015

Hundreds of opening guests honoring the famous artist’s model Wally Neuzil

Vienna (OTS) – While there was Schiele aplenty last night at the Leopold Museum, it wasn’t Egon Schiele who was the focus of the exhibition, but his muse and partner Wally Neuzil.

Illustrious opening

The opening of the first exhibition of 2015, "WALLY NEUZIL. Her Life with EGON SCHIELE", was celebrated in the atrium of the Leopold Museum in an illustrious fashion. On display as of now, the presentation tells the moving story of the woman who from 1911 to 1915 stood by Schiele, throughout the good times and the bad.

Schubert’s "Death and the Maiden"

The atmospheric musical accompaniment on the opening night was perfectly suited to Egon and Wally. Seeing as they are both immortalized in Schiele’s painting "Death and the Maiden", one of the exhibition’s highlights, Prof. Rudolf Leopold played two movements from the beautiful eponymous quartet by Schubert, together with Barbara Gorzynska, Marta Potulska and Valerie Leopold.

Honoring Wally

The grande dame Elisabeth Leopold, the Director of the Leopold Museum Franz Smola and one of the presentation’s curators Diethard Leopold, who opened the exhibition, honored Wally Neuzil in their speeches.

Guests and hosts

Hundreds of guests, including numerous celebrities, attended the opening night to celebrate with their hosts. Among them were the Leopold Museum board members Dir. Carl Aigner and attorney Andreas Nödl with his wife Anna, the president of the court of auditors Josef Moser, the former minister of agriculture Dipl.-Ing. Nikolaus Berlakovich, Leopold Museum Managing Director Peter Weinhäupl, the president of the association Friends of the Leopold Museum Hans Raumauf, the vice-president of that association attorney Thomas Mondl and his wife Christiane, as well as the board members of the association Felizitas Schreier and Prof. Fritz Koreny.

Artists and art enthusiasts exploring the lives of Wally and Egon

Exploring the life of Wally were the artists Bernadette Huber, who created a wonderful video work entitled "Egon in Krumau" for the exhibition, as well as Linde Waber, Hannes Mlenek and Peter Sengl, who the museum will be dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to in the autumn. Also in attendance were the artist Waltraud Leopold, the collector Prof. Toyoko Hattori, the Managing Director of the Klimt Foundation Sandra Tretter, the publisher Christian Brandstätter, the journalist David D’Arcy, Prof. Alfons Huber, the entrepreneur Karl Grasl, Joachim Lothar Gartner (Künstlerhaus), the publishing director Nikolaus Brandstätter, Gerhard Piffl (Imagno), the provenance researcher Michael Wladika, the architect Arno Grünberger, and many others.

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