Throughout 2012, Austria is celebrating the 150th birthday of Gustav Klimt with exhibitions devoted to his work. Several Viennese museums, including the Albertina, the Belvedere, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Leopold Museum and the Wien Museum, are honoring different aspects of Klimt’s legacy. On this side of the pond, the Neue Galerie New York is joining in these celebrations with a summer installation of his work.
“Gustav Klimt: 150th Anniversary Celebration” is on view at the Neue Galerie through August 27. It includes major paintings from the collection, including “Pale Face,” 1903, “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” 1907, “The Black Feather Hat,” 1910, “The Park of Schloss Kammer,” circa 1910, “Forester House in Weissenbach on the Attersee,” 1914, “Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee,” 1916, and the late work, “The Dancer,” 1916‱8. The exhibition also features a number of rare and never-before-seen photographs of the artist and his close companion, the fashion designer Emilie Flöge.
A number of Klimt drawings are included in the exhibition. The selection includes a group of studies from two controversial projects: sketches made in preparation for three faculty paintings that were to be installed in the Main Hall of the Vienna University (“Philosophy,” “Medicine” and “Jurisprudence,” circa 1901‰7), and his sketches for the 14th Vienna Secession exhibition of 1902, for a project known as the Beethoven Frieze.
Both provoked scandals and left Klimt disillusioned with government projects. Following these events, Klimt undertook mostly private portrait commissions of society women in Vienna.
The Neue Galerie museum is at 1048 Fifth Avenue. For more information, www.neuegalerie.org or 212-628-6200.
