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Vienna: Art & Design from the 1900s at the National Gallery of Victoria

Gustav KLIMT - Beethoven Frieze

Gustav KLIMT
Austria 1862–1918
The Beethoven Frieze: Central wall 1901-02
painted plaster
216.0 x 3438.0 cm
Belvedere, Vienna

Egon Schiele - Portrait of a Boy I

Egon Schiele
Austrian 1890–1918
Portrait of a Boy I (Herbert Rainer) 1910
oil on canvas
100.0 x 100.0 cm
Belvedere, Vienna

Vienna: Art & Design from the 1900s in Melbourne 300 great works by the greatest Viennese artists of the early 20th century -including Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka- are on display at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 18 June–09 October 2011.]]>

Source: National Gallery of Victoria / theartwolf.com

The exhibition explores an extraordinary period of artistic and intellectual flowering, the Vienna Secession Movement. The press note of the exhibition starts with this suggestive paragraph: “Stylish, provocative, rebellious and unforgettable – the world has seen nothing like Vienna in 1900“.

Gustav Klimt is the main star of the exhibition. An important group of his paintings are displayed at the show, including four great female portraits: “Portrait of Emilie Flöge” (1902) from the Wien Museum, Vienna; the “Portrait of Fritza Riedler” (1906) and the “Johanna Staude” (1917–18), both from the Belvedere, Vienna; and the “Portrait of Hermine Gallia” (1904) from the The National Gallery, London. The exhibition also includes a facsimile of the famous “Beethoven Frieze”.

“Vienna: Art & Design” also showcases Egon Schiele’s striking portraits (such as “Portrait of a Boy I – Herbert Rainer”) and erotic studies (such as “Nude with checked slipper”).

The exhibition features many excellent examples of decorative arts, showing the strong juxtapositions between the two major designers of the period: Adolf Loos and Josef Hoffmann. And one of the most striking works in the exhibition is a reconstruction of Facade for “Die Zeit” Newspaper, by Otto Wagner.

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Egon Schiele’s women at Richard Nagy London (exhibition, 2011)

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Vienna: Art & Design from the 1900s at the National Gallery of Victoria