From September 20 to January 7, the Neue Galerie New York will present “Ferdinand Hodler: View to Infinity,” the largest American exhibition ever devoted to this major Swiss artist.
The organizing curator is Jill Lloyd, a scholar who has assembled several important shows for the museum, including “Van Gogh and Expressionism.” Hodler was admired by such Austrian artists as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, whose work is essential to the Neue Galerie collection.
The exhibition is co-organized by the Fondation Beyeler, Basel, where it will be on view from January 27⁍ay 5. The organizing curator for the Beyeler is Ulf Küster.
The exhibition includes 65 paintings and 20 drawings from both public and private collections worldwide, as well as furniture designed by Josef Hoffmann for the Hodler apartment. The Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva was responsible for the loan of the drawings.
The show will cover all key aspects of Hodler’s work: numerous self-portraits, Symbolist canvases; majestic paintings of the Swiss Alpine landscape; and a series of shockingly frank portraits of his lover, Valentine Godé-Darel, documenting her decline and death.
There are also 45 intimate photographs of Hodler in the exhibition taken by Gertrud Dübi-Müller, which show him as a very engaging figure, in bowler hat and striking various poses. These photographs are on loan from the Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur. A fully illustrated catalog, published by Hatje Cantz, will accompany the exhibition.
The Neue Galerie is at 1048 Fifth Avenue. For more information, www.neuegalerie.org or 212-628-6200.
