Event Item: 00044

Gustav Klimt and the Artists Company

Exhibition: 20th Jun 2007 to 2nd Oct 2007

Source: http://www.belvedere.at

The Belvedere in Vienna is showing major works by the Klimt brothers and by Franz Matsch, embedded into the art of historicism and art nouveau, thus making Klimt's great leap forward into the modern age comprehensible.

The Belvedere owns the largest collection of paintings by Gustav Klimt in the world. More than 20 masterpieces provide an incomparable impression of the oeuvre of Austria's probably most famous artist. Gustav Klimt founded the "Künstler-Compagnie" (Artists Company) around 1880, together with his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch. The company supplied painted decorations for theatre buildings of the monarchy (including in Reichenberg, Karlsbad and Rijeka), stately homes, the (Hof-)Burgtheater. Together with Mihaly Munkácsy he worked on the frescos for the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches (Hof) Museum, which had been begun by Hans Makart, Gustav Klimt's great model.

Privately owned monumental ceiling paintings and curtains created for palaces and theaters by Gustav and Ernst Klimt, and Franz Matsch in the late 19th century are to be publicly exhibited for the first time in almost 100 years. The large works on show will include a 15-meter long frieze and seven paintings from the Peles Summer Palace in Sinaia, in today's Romania. These and other works by Franz Matsch, Ernst Klimt and Hans Makart, as well as early Gustav Klimt portraits will bring the Ringstrasse era to life. Gustav Klimt's gilded pictures "The Kiss" and "Judith I", which put Klimt himself and the Vienna Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) school on the map, reflect the movement's role as a stepping stone towards modernism.

Belvedere, Upper Belvedere, Prinz-Eugen-Strasse 27, Vienna.