Neue Galerie Museum shows Oskar Kokoschka and Selections from the Permanent Collection |
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| Written by Boris Hoffmann |
| Friday, 17 July 2009 06:06 |
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 Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was a key figure in the
history of Expressionism. He first gained notice with his appearance in the
seminal Vienna Kunstschau of 1908. Gustav Klimt, president of the Vienna
Secession, described the artist as “the outstanding talent among the younger
generation.” Kokoschka received his greatest acclaim for his portraits. He was able to fix his reactions to a sitter directly on the canvas, without preparatory studies. The subjects of his portraits are illuminated from within, rather than from an exterior light source. In this way, Kokoschka animates his sitters. As the artist himself once stated, “Human beings are not still lifes.” In addition to his oil portraits, the exhibition includes a selection of the artist’s drawings. Graphic works that Kokoschka created for the Wiener Werkstätte demonstrate his swift passage from Jugendstil to Expressionism, and from illustrator to artist. Highlighted among the permanent collection works on exhibit will be a number of pieces that have particular relevance to present-day social conditions, from George Grosz drawings of corrupt plutocrats in a debauched civic landscape to Otto Dix etchings of crippled war veterans facing a pitiless society. Other major works on view will be paintings by Austrian artists Gustav Klimt (including his masterpiece Adele Bloch-Bauer I) and Egon Schiele, by German artists Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and decorative arts by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Marianne Brandt, and Mies van der Rohe.  Neue Galerie New York is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German
and Austrian art and design, displayed on two exhibition floors. The
second-floor galleries are dedicated to art from Vienna circa 1900, exploring
the special relationship that existed then between the fine arts (of Gustav
Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl, and Alfred Kubin) and the
decorative arts (created at the Wiener Werkstätte by such well-known figures as
Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and Dagobert Peche, and by such celebrated
architects as Adolf Loos, Joseph Urban, and Otto Wagner). The third-floor galleries feature German art representing various movements of the early twentieth century: the Blaue Reiter and its circle (Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter); the Brücke (Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff); the Bauhaus (Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer); the Neue Sachlichkeit (Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad); as well as applied arts from the Werkbund (Peter Behrens) and the Bauhaus (Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wilhelm Wagenfeld). Neue Galerie New York was conceived by two men who enjoyed a close friendship over a period of nearly thirty years: art dealer and museum exhibition organizer Serge Sabarsky and businessman, philanthropist, and art collector Ronald S. Lauder. Sabarsky and Lauder shared a passionate commitment to the German and Austrian art of this period and dreamed of opening a museum to showcase the finest examples of this work. After Sabarsky died in 1996, Lauder carried on the vision of creating Neue Galerie New York as a tribute to his friend. Visit : http://www.neuegalerie.org/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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