Colorful tiles on the roof of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

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Vienna Media News 06/2021 Blockbuster fall for Vienna’s museums and galleries

The coronavirus pandemic put paid to numerous exhibitions that Vienna had scheduled: a major show at the Albertina commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of Italian painter and sculptor  Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) was among the casualties in 2020. But this  comprehensive retrospective – the most expensive the Albertina has ever staged – will finally make its debut in September. A premiere in more ways than one, it is the first time that Modigliani’s works have been presented in a solo exhibition in Austria. Many of his famous nudes and portraits, as well as a number of his rare sculptures, will be at the Albertina on loan from major collections.

Another new take is the portrayal of the eccentric artist as a leading avant-gardist, as the exhibition explores his relationship with primitivist art.  Works from Modigliani’s oeuvre will be juxtaposed with pieces by Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuşi and André Derain, as well as artifacts from prehistoric, ancient and non-European cultures.

KHM celebrates with a Titian exhibition 

In 2021, the  Kunsthistorische Museum Vienna  (KHM) will be looking back at its grand opening 130 years earlier by  Emperor Franz Joseph I on October 17, 1891. It is marking the occasion with a major new exhibition looking at the work of seminal Venetian painter Titian (1488/90-1576). In an interesting twist, the KHM will use around 60 paintings to document depictions of women in the work of Titian and his contemporaries Jacopo Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Paris Bordone and Lorenzo Lotto. 

Like no other, Titian excelled in the art of portraying the female form in a manner both intellectual and elegant, but also idealized and sensual. The exhibition turns the spotlight on the women themselves, and on their precious High Renaissance fabrics, hairstyles, opulent gems and lavish pearls. In fall, masterpieces of Venetian painting from some of the world’s top art museums, including the National Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre in Paris, will be heading to Vienna, where they will go on display alongside works from the KHM’s own holdings. A bone fide blockbuster!

Rare visitor at the Belvedere: Klimt’s Lady with Fan 

Vienna has another masterpiece in store for art lovers until February 2022. A real Viennese lady recently returned to her roots: Lady with Fan, the last largely completed work by iconic Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), is back in the capital after more than 100 years. Now in private hands abroad, the painting was last put on show in Vienna in 1920. And over the coming months it will be the shining light in a temporary exhibition at the  Upper  Belvedere looking at Klimt’s last works.

In addition to Lady with Fan, the show will feature a number of other late works by the artist, including Die Braut, Amalie Zuckerkandl, Adam and Eve, and Lady in White. In October, the scope of the exhibition will be extended to include a focus on Klimt’s relationship with Far Eastern art. Among the exhibits will be porcelainware and textiles from China, as well as colored Japanese wood cuts that hold a mirror to his late works.

Multiple epochs in a single city 

The Upper Belvedere will be shining a light on a hitherto little-explored epoch in the Age of Dürer later this year. Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Altdorfer and Jacopo de’ Barbari are among the contemporaries of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) who were all active in Austria around 1500 and the decades that followed. Created during the transitional period from Late Gothic to the Renaissance, their works reveal a new form of artistic self-conception and anticipate the path toward modernism. In addition to works from its own collection – some of them painstakingly restored – the Belvedere will be presenting loan exhibits from various Austrian and international collections.

The Albertina modern, which opened in May on Karlsplatz as an offshoot of the Albertina, is running the rule over the work of Egon Schiele (1890-1918) this fall. This icon of Austrian expressionism completely rewrote the portraits rulebook, with his focus on body language, gestures and facial expression breaking new ground and setting a completely new direction. His art marked a radical departure from the cult of beauty that would come to define the fin-de-siècle Vienna Secession movement. In Egon Schiele and his Legacy, the artist’s self-portraits are shown alongside works from subsequent generations of artists. 

The list of exhibitions hosted by the city’s galleries and museums is updated all the time: Click here for the latest overview:
https://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/museums-exhibitions 

For a printable version of this image, please contact https://www.albertina.at/en/press/albertina-modern/egon-schiele-and-his-legacy/

Contact

Vienna Tourist Board
Helena Hartlauer
Media Relations
Tel. (+ 43 1) 211 14-364