Vienna 1900

The Museum of Modern Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to MoMA.

http://www.jstor.org

Vienna 1900: Art-Architecture & Design Author(s): Kirk Varnedoe Source: MoMA, No. 40 (Summer, 1986), pp. 1-2Published by: The Museum of Modern ArtStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380992Accessed: 08-08-2015 06:45 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Sat, 08 Aug 2015 06:45:02 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

0o The Museum of Modern Art

Members Quarterly

Summer 1986

1 rn a_S~~~~~~~~~~~~I

1 1 m -; Z I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I

s X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i

l w#r98:|"HSsl;- l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A

l m l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~V l

: l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


U

U U

Alt I *ANCHI~119

International Council Galleries, ground floor July 3-October 22

On July 3 the Museum opened the first exhibition ever to present to the American public the full spectrum of early modern art in Vienna. VIENNA 1900 includes not only great masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka (many of which have not been seen previ- ously in the U.S.), but also a fabu- lous array of decorative arts and furniture by the artists and crafts- men of the renowned Wiener Werkstatte. In addition, architec- tural models and drawings represent major innovative buildings by the Viennese architects Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, and Adolf Loos. In the Garden Hall, a full-scale, seventeen- foot-tall replica of a lost work by Otto Wagner-the startlingly forward-looking aluminum facade of the news dispatch bureau Die Zeit- stands at the entrance of the Inter- national Council Galleries.

The exhibition covers the years from the founding of the rebel artists' society, the Secession, in 1897 to the fatal year of 1918, which saw the end of the centuries-old Habsburg Monarchy and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During these exceptional years, Vienna witnessed striking innovations in virtually every domain of culture. Sigmund Freud's reconception of the nature of man as a sensual and civi- lized being, the musical inventions of Gustav Mahler and the younger Arnold Schoenberg, the literary contributions of, among others, Arthur Schnitzler and Robert Musil-all these basic components of twentieth-century culture were products of the complex, cosmopoli- tan society of the capital on the Danube. Hub of Central Europe and governing center of an unwieldly Empire that stretched from the Veneto to Russia, the Vienna of the Emperor Franz Josef also saw the emergence of new kinds of political polemic, in styles of mass politics that gave birth to both the Zionism of Theodore Herzl and darker fasci- nations with demagoguery. With its elegant society in decline and its young civilization being born, the Vienna of those days was a place of dazzling contradictions. This city of spectacle and theater poised on the volatile line between East and West was the formative locale of many of the ideas and artistic inventions that continue to shape our lives today.

In no other European capital out- side Paris was aesthetic life such a prominent concern. Vienna stood apart by virtue of an exceptional eruption of talent and ambition in all the visual arts. Viennese architects, painters, and designers were drawn recurrently to the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art, which would unite the fine and

the applied arts to reshape com- pletely the viewer's experience. The artists of the Secession and the col- laborative design workshop, the Wiener Werkstatte, devoted their talents to fabrics, ceramics, silver- ware, book design, fashion, and furniture that ranged from proto- Minimal simplicity to lavish, one-of- a-kind inlaid pieces of ebony, ivory, and mother-of-pearl. All these varied expressions of the Viennese genius, from rigorous structural logic and purity to extravagant jeweled richness, are visible throughout the exhibition, juxtaposed with the great masterpieces of painting that are turn-of-the-century Vienna's most familiar hallmarks.

In painting, the exhibition features the special sensual power of Gustav Klimt; his portraits and nudes, often with dazzling gold-leafed surfaces, display his distinctive talent as a master of elegant eroticism. The younger Oskar Kokoschka, whose

disturbed portraits of Viennese intellectuals, artists, and aristo- crats are among the most searing announcements of the harsh energies of Expressionism, is represented by such key works as the portrait of the bohemian Viennese writer Peter Altenberg. And the brilliant though tragically short career of Egon Schiele is manifest in all its variety, from his trenchant Expressionist portraits and self-portraits through the melancholy allegories and land- scapes of the years of World War I, to the stunning graphic power of his unrivaled, often brutally erotic, drawings and watercolors. Also on view are the unusual and often fan- tasist work of artists less well-known to American audiences, such as the proto-surreal drawings of Alfred Kubin and the uncanny quasi- cinematic visions of Klemens Brosch, as well as the fascinating paintings of Richard Gerstl and Arnold Schoenberg.

Though it contains many of the same masterworks seen in the recent exhibitions devoted to modern Vien- nese culture and society held in Vienna and Paris, the Museum's VIENNA 1900 adds many superb new works from private and museum collections in the United States and Europe. More closely focused on the visual arts of early modern Vienna, and on the epoch of their highest achievements, VIENNA 1900 presents an integrated display that clearly illuminates both the interrela- tionship of talents in Viennese art and the rapid, dramatic changes in style that marked its development.

The legacy of Vienna is more alive today than ever. In recent years a broader public has become aware of the richness of this exceptional city's contributions to modern thought and creativity, while contemporary architects, designers, and artists have found inspiration in the Vien- nese arts. Many of the most telling debates regarding the art of the 1980s-over historicism and decora- tion, or over a new expressionism- find their mirror in the electric moment of experiment that held Vienna in thrall for the magic years before 1918. VIENNA 1900, which will appear only at the Museum and will not travel, provides an exceptional opportunity, unlikely to be repeated, to understand this epoch and this society through some of its most seductive and most challenging artistic accomplishments. D

-Kirk Varnedoe Adjunct Curator, Department of Paint- ing and Sculpture

Vienna 1900: Ticketing Information

Members are not required to purchase either tickets in advance or timed tickets in order to view the VIENNA 1900 exhibition.

Museum Members enter the exhibition by presenting their member- ship cards to the ticket-taker at the ground floor entrance to the exhibition. Museum Members (Individual, Family/Dual, Participating) who wish to bring guests to VIENNA 1900 may purchase tickets to the exhibition for $1.00 at the Information Desk. Guest Passes are required for entrance to the Museum. Patron, Sustaining, Supporting, and Fellow Members may acquire guest tickets to the exhibition at the Information Desk free of charge.

Nonmembers enter the Museum through the east entrance (nearest Fifth Avenue) and proceed to the ticket booths on the east side of the Lobby, where tickets to VIENNA 1900 are available for $6.00 ($5.00 for general admission and $1.00 for VIENNA 1900). Pay-What-You-Wish does not apply to VIENNA 1900.

*=~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A

- -'m

: ~.

*Otto Wagner. Facade, "Die Zeit" Dispatch Bureau (modern reconstruction of 1902 original). Aluminum and glass. Collection Historisches MuseuAm der Stadt Wien, Vienna.

The exhibition has been generously supported by Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder and the Lauder family. Additional support has been received from The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art. An indemnity for the exhibition has been provided by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.


tm:

-~~~~~4

* Koloman Moser. Poster for

Secession XIII. 1902. Litho-

graph. Private collection,

courtesy Barry Friedman Ltd.,

New York.

U Egon Schiele. Two Girls Lying Entwined (The Models). 1915. Pencil and gouache on

paper. Collection Graphische

Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

1~~~~

* Josef Hoffmann. Oil and vinegar cruets and other table

objects. c. 1904. Silver and glass. Private collection.

9.

^ A

* Gustav Klimt. Hope II. 1907-

08. Oil and gold on canvas.

The Museum of Modern Art,

Helen Acheson Funds.

Cover: Clockwise from upper left:

* Josef Hoffmann. Chair. 1906. Wood. Private collection.

* Gustav Klimt. Salome Judith II). 1909. Oil on canvas. Collection

Galleria d'Arte Moderna

Ca' Pesaro, Venice.

* Otto Wagner. Post Office

Savings Bank (Postparkasse) Competition Design (seen from the Ringstrasse). 1903. Pencil and ink on paper. Col,

lection Historisches Museum

der Stadt Wien, Vienna.

Vienna 1900: Video

In conjunction with the exhibition, a 28 minute documentary videotape, Vienna 1900, is screened daily at the Museum. The program expands on the themes of the exhibition, examining Viennese cultural life and its influence on the evolution of modern thought. It offers a variety of critical perspectives, clarifying the political, social, and cultural circumstances that influenced the artists whose works are represented in the exhibition. Professor Stephen Toulmin, a former student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, narrates the film. He is Professor of Social Thought at the University of Chicago and Visiting Scholar at the Getty Center in Malibu, California. The program was produced by Metropolitan Arts, Inc., under the

auspices of The Austrian Press and Information Service, New York, and was made possible by the Creditanstalt, Vienna-New York and the Austrian National Tourist Office.

Vienna 1900: Recorded Tour

Kirk Varnedoe, Professor at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and Adjunct Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, has prepared and nar- rated a recorded tour of the exhibition Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture & Design. As organizer of the exhibition and author of its accompanying catalog, Dr. Varnedoe provides an informed and insightful guide to the splendid array of masterworks in the exhibition, focusing on its highlights. He describes the artis-

tic developments that occurred in Vienna between 1898 and 1918, reveal- ing how they were expressed in the paintings, decorative objects, graphic design, and architecture on view. The tour offers visitors a concise and coher- ent interpretation of one of the most creative, complicated, and exciting peri ods in the history of modern art.

The tour is available in English and lasts approximately thirty minutes. The rental fee is $3.00 per person.


Article Contents[unnumbered]p. [1]p. [2]

Issue Table of ContentsMoMA, No. 40 (Summer, 1986), pp. 1-7Vienna 1900: Art-Architecture & Design [pp. 1-2]The Party in the Garden [p. 3]Summergarden 1986 and Vienna 1900 Caf [p. 3]Vienna 1900: A Festival of Music [p. 4]Recent Acquisition [p. 5]Rosalind Solomon: Ritual [p. 6]Back Matter [p. 7-7]

Vienna 1900

Documents