Prague, April 24 (CTK) – The National Gallery (NG) in Prague has prepared an exhibition of works by Austrian modernists Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918) from its collections on the occasion of their 100th death anniversary that opens in the NG’s Trade Fair (Veletrzni) Palace on Tuesday.
Their works will be displayed within the context of their contemporaries and successors from the Viennese artistic scene.
The exhibition entitled The End of the Golden Times will last until July 15.
While Klimt was one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement, Schiele, who was one generation younger, is considered an early exponent of Expressionism. However, both artists influenced one another.
They died at the end of WWI, which led to the split of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, including also the Czech Lands, in whose culture the tradition of the 19th century intermingled with modernist trends of the beginning of the 20th century.
“The exhibition will present Klimt’s significant works from our collections: The painting Water Chateau, bought in 1910, and an exceptional acquisition from 1914 – The Virgin, exploring the relation between beauty and ephemerality, youth and mortality. Klimt’s drawings from earlier and later periods will also be shown. Some of them were created as preparatory studies for his famous paintings, such as The Kiss and The Bride,” exhibition curator Olga Uhrova said.
The first works by Schiele that the NG bought in 1930 were Pregnant Woman and Death and Seated Woman with Bent Knees, a portrait of his wife Edith from 1917.
“The portrait of Edith is one of the most popular works from the National Gallery’s collections. However, since this is a drawing, it can only be displayed for a limited time,” Zuzana Novotna, curator of the graphic art and drawings collections, explained.
Besides, Schiele’s only existing Still Life with Flowers from 1911 will be presented in the NG, along with his first painting of Cesky Krumlov (Krumau), a town in South Bohemia where he lived for a short time.
Moreover, the exhibition offers works by other representatives of the Viennese modernism, such as Emil Orlik with his portraits of famous artists, Josef Hoffmann’s studies of the key architectonic masterpieces in Vienna, coloured drawings by Alfred Kubin and illustrations by Oskar Kokoschka along with his early painting called Poet Albert Ehrenstein (1914).
