Our Editor Visits Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz ~ One Of The Most Important Museums of Modern & Contemporary Art in Austria

Written by Andrew Cattleman Wednesday, 09 November 2011 22:20

From the Celtic for "located at the bend of the river" (also the root of Linz' Latin name "Lentia"), The Lentos Museum of Modern Art, which opened in May 2003, is among the most important museums of modern art in Austria. The clear and coherent structural design, created by the award winning Zurich architects Weber & Hofer, provides Linz with a museum of art of international status, positioned in the urban context. The internationally acclaimed 130 meter long building by the Zurich architects Weber & Hofer provides approximately 8400 m2 for use and is located directly on the Danube River between the Nibelungen Bridge and Brucknerhaus. The appearance of the building is remarkable for its transparent glass casing, attractively lit at night (when it slowly cycles through colour changes from red to blue). The visitor enters through the 60 m long, open air vestibule that appears cut out of the building. The ground floor contains the foyer, museum shop, cafe (with terraced area), the 250-seat auditorium, and the museum education hall. The upper floor houses eleven rooms covering 1800 m² for the permanent collection and a large special exhibition room of roughly 850 m², along with an art cabinet and a reading room, all of which benefit from the available natural light. The expansive basement houses two more exhibition rooms, the library, the depots, workshops, storage rooms and a study hall for graphic arts. As successor institution to the New Gallery of the City of Linz, the Lentos Kunstmuseum, which opened in 2003, is considered one of the most important museums of modern and contemporary art in Austria. Starting from the collection holdings, which focus on masterpieces of European painting from the first half of the 20th century and a rich collection of graphic art and high quality photography, Lentos draws an arch from the classical historical art of the early 20th century to the most current art positions of today. Art as a medium for understanding the world, art as a catalyst for experiencing the individual reality of life, but also art as a means of probing social possibilities: these are key concepts that determine how the exhibition program and the broad-ranging events that enhance the program of the museum are conceived and communicated. Building on the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888-1965), the holdings have been richly expanded since 1953. The Collection consists of roughly 1,800 works of painting, sculpture and object art as well as over 17,000 works on paper, including 850 photographs. The earliest works in the museum are from the first half of the 19th century (C.D. Friedrich, J.B. Reiter) whilst the landscape and portrait painting of the 19th century is represented with masterpieces of German Romanticism, Austrian Biedermeier, Historicism, Atmospheric Impressionism and the Secessionism. Art - a means of life - this is what the Lentos invites the visitor to enjoy. Visit the museum's website at : http://www.lentos.at

The collection of The Lentos Museum is filled with unique fine art. In the field of classical Modernism, Lentos has important paintings by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Corinth and Pechstein. From the inter-war period there are works of German and Austrian Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (Carl Hofer, Franz Sedlacek, Albin Egger-Lienz,Müller and Modersohn-Becker). The period after 1945 is illustrated with works of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Appel, Bayer, Nay, Warhol, Haring, Lassnig, Lüpertz, Rainer, Chillida, Cragg, Sean Scully, and Balkenhol. Highlights of the collection include meditative, abstract expressions of the 1980s and 1990s, the generation of the former "New Wild Ones" by Herbert Brandl, Hubert Scheibl, Kurt Kocherscheidt, Gunter Damisch and Otto Zitko, "Paradise" by the German "prince of painters" Markus Lüpertz or Sean Scully's "archangel Uriel". Figurative painting, is represented by the Swiss hyper-realist Franz Gertsch, whose girls on the beach are still enchanting, and by the "shock artist" Gottfried Helnwein. In addition to the outstanding graphic art collection with important compilations from Kubin to Pop Art, Lentos also has several hundred art-historically significant photographs (A. Rodtschenko, Man Ray, H. Bayer). The collection of sculptures, statues and objects of the Lentos Kunstmuseum includes about 450 exhibits. The earliest works are from the period of Austrian Expressionism. In addition to a bronze head by Egon Schiele (1916-1918) and the bronze sculpture Burning Man created in 1922 by Anton Hanák, there are examples of German Expressionism by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, which make up the historical foundation of the collection. An example of realistic post-war art in Austria is Alfred Hrdlicka's Gladiator (model: 1965, cast 1999). Plexiglas objects by Cornelius Kolig exemplify Pop Art tendencies in Austria. Many of the sculptures stem from the 1980s and 1990s, including works by Sepp Auer, Manfred Erjautz, Bruno Gironcoli, Manfred Wakolbinger and Erwin Wurm. International artists are represented by Stephan Balkenhol, Ernst Barlach, Michael Buthe, Anthony Caro, Amadeo Gabino, Jiri Kolar, and Tom Wesselmann in the collection. The graphic art holdings of the Lentos currently include some 10,000 exhibits. Starting from works of Impressionism, Expressionism and Secessionism (including Max Liebermann, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Käthe Kollwitz, Oskar Kokoschka), and trends of Neue Sachlichkeit (Franz Sedlacek, Karl Rössing, Joseph Binder, Rudolf Baschant), collection interests shifted beginning in the 1960s and even more so in the 1970s towards Abstract Expressionism (including Pierre Alechinsky, Hans Staudacher, Antoni Tápies) and cycles of etchings and lithographic series by Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. The collection is continued with Pop Art (including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jim Dine) and recent and contemporary trends in Austrian art (including Uli Aigner, Siegfried Anzinger, Christian Ludwig Attersee, Dietmar Brehm, Kurt Kappa Kocherscheidt, Maria Lassnig, Ulrike Lienbacher, Arnulf Rainer, Roman Scheidl and Othmar Zechyr). Alfred Hrdlicka's print graphic oeuvre, extensive graphic cycles by Alfred Kubin, Margret Bilger, Honoré Daumier, Karl Rossing and the Gugging artists (including Johann Hauser, Oswald Tschirtner, August Walla) are special focal points of the collection. The photo collection of the LENTOS Kunstmuseum currently includes about 1,100 exhibits. It focuses on historical photography, new objectivity, artist portraits, post-war photography affiliated with the "Magnum" photo agency and contemporary positions. The foundation of the collection includes historical photographs by Nadar, Lewis Carroll, Frederick H. Evans, John Jabez Edwin Mayall and Roger Fenton. The acquisition of so-called New Media - primarily analog and digital video - first began in the 2000s. The Collection holdings are consequently in development. New media works are a recent addition to the museum's collection portfolio, but have been acquired in recent years from international and Austrian artists, who have been presented in solo or thematic exhibitions.

Two exhibitions are currently running at the Lentos. Siegfried Anzinger respospective (until 13th March 2011). Siegfried Anzinger is one of the most internationally acclaimed Austrian painters and artists and has already received the highest awards. Anziger is associated with Upper Austria and in particular with the Lentos, having held his an advance viewing of his first retrospective at the old Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz in 1986. The show at the Lentos provides a comprehensive insight into the varied work of the artist. In the center of the exhibition are recent paintings, drawings and sculptures, which are confronted with early examples of selected major works. Large canvases from the early works are presented as well as the first Austrian showing of works from 2009/2010 including paradise pictures, ranges of self-portraits, saints, cowboys and indians. In conjunction with the Belvedere in Vienna, the Lentos is also exhibiting: Valie Export ~ "Time and Countertime" (until 30th January 2011). The focus of both simultaneously planned exhibitions in the Belvedere and Lentos is on the work of the artist from the past 20 years, which consist primarily of large-scale installations. Based on these works, themes derive their content, have a formal relationship, or imply a substantive continuation from the artists earlier works. The development and advancement of artistic motifs, their semantic shifts, their character and their multitude of different media and diversity are able to be adequately presented in the Vienna and Linz facilities. Here, the autonomous exhibitions will complement the content and interlink with each other to make the Valie Export a multi-dimensional and multi-media space experience. The two exhibitions will present various strands, including work on injury and violence, the image of women and their fitting into, modification and conversion by architecture, town or countryside, but also to psychological states, as well as confusing worlds of perception and linguistic expressions.