From Klimt to Krystufek at Museum der Moderne Rupertinum

Written by George Williamson Wednesday, 28 December 2011 21:28

Salzburg, Austria - The Museum der Moderne Salzburg Collection is largely based on works of art from the Salzburg, Ausria - The Museum der Moderne Salzburg Collection is largely based on works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries, wherein two Leitmotifs constitute the Collection: images of people and landscapes. A defining aspect of the concept of the collection is Austrian art in its autonomous development, its special forms, its embedding in overall European development, and its relationship to international styles. The exhibition displays an outstanding selection from MdM Salzburg’s collection of paintings, which consists of purchases, donations and important permanent loans. On exhibition 16 June until 30 September, 2007.

From the art of the turn of the Century to representative contemporary works, connections between a specific Austrian and international art development can be clearly seen. Exhibition curator: Dr. Eleonora Louis.

 Two masterpieces distinctly correspond to the two Leitmotifs of the Collection: the sculpture La Figure Volante by Auguste Rodin; as the chronologically oldest work (approx. 1890/91), it can still be classified to the 19th Century, but its modernity points to the 20th Century. And the seldom shown “Litzlberg am Attersee“ (1915) by Gustav Klimt, with which the exhibition is presenting one of the artist’s few landscape paintings. Art from early Austrian Expressionists, including works by Richard Gerstl, Egon Schiele and a young Oskar Kokoschka are juxtaposed against the works of German Expressionists, including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Otto Dix. The late assimilation of Cubism and various abstract tendencies are reflected in the works of Georg Jung . Anton Faistauer, Jean Egger and Herbert Boeckl diversely represent Austrian art with important paintings from the period between the world wars. The special Austrian form of Informel, or informal art, can be seen in a work by Hans Staudacher. Josef Mikl, Peter Pongratz and Jürgen Messensee are representative of the art of the 1960s and 1970s.

The artistic positions of Siegfried Anzinger, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Elke Krystufek, Markus Lüpertz, Hubert Schmalix, etc., attest to internationalization in the fine arts and are proof of the broad format of the MdM Salzburg Collection that extends beyond the borders of Europe.

 In 1983 the Rupertinum building was handed over for use as the Salzburg Museum für moderne Kunst for the Salzburg national public collection and, in October 2004, it was transformed into the Museum der Moderne Salzburg, an independent limited liability corporation.

The idea for founding the museum and the collection can be traced back to the initiative of Salzburg art dealer Friedrich Welz, who transferred a large part of his private collection to the province of Salzburg. Through his personal friendship with Oskar Kokoschka, a considerable number of works of great Austrian expressionists found their way in to the Rupertinum collection. Visit : www.museumdermoderne.at/