"The story of this Klimt painting...
reads like a sweeping, romantic epic
of loss and redemption..."
 The Press
The Paintings and the History
Art of the Period
THE PRESS
"Luck, according to the Roman dramatist Seneca, is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. If so, Los Angeles is the luckiest city in the world for Modern art right now. Preparation just met opportunity, and the stunning result is Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings From the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, which opened this week to a jostling media throng at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ... As a group their power radiates outward, like ripples from a stone dropped into the pond of Modern art. At the center is the singular 1907 tour de force, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, among the greatest early Modern paintings now in the U.S. For LACMA it ranks as a destination work — the kind one travels just to see — comparable to Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon at New York's Museum of Modern Art ... "
Christopher Knight, The Los Angeles Times
"Maria Altmann says the portrait of her Auntie Adele somehow looks bigger than she remembered, as the Gustav Klimt masterpiece of a sensual lady bound in gold was unveiled here at the county art museum Tuesday, almost seven decades after it was stolen from her family by the Nazis following their march into Vienna. The story of this Klimt painting — its creation, its subject, its looting, the discovery of the theft and the legal battle to have the art returned — reads like a sweeping, romantic epic of loss and redemption, a tale that spans the hothouse salons of fin-de-siecle Vienna, the darkness of the Holocaust and the U.S. Supreme Court."
William Booth, The Washington Post
" . . . But the reluctance of the Austrian authorities is a godsend for
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which is just starting a major renovation, by one of the Pompidou Center architects, Renzo Piano. LACMA set up the exhibit of the five Klimt paintings in a record time. And it is a stunning début for its brand new director of the museum Michael Govan, who will preside over the transformations of the cultural institution. After June 30, where will the paintings go? To the French daily newspaper Le Monde, Maria Altmann, who masters French perfectly, confirmed that she wants to sell the paintings to a museum, rather than a private collector, 'so they remain available to a large public, the way my uncle and my aunt wanted to.' She would prefer for the paintings to remain in Los Angeles, 'my home town, and
the town that welcomed me when I fled the Nazis.'"
Claudine Mulard, Le Monde
"The gold painting was originally commissioned by Mr. Bloch-Bauer, an avid art collector, for his Vienna palace. Klimt spent three painstaking years on the canvas, making hundreds of sketches for his sensual vision of Adele, her pale face at the center, her hands twisted near her face in a vulnerable gesture. (A film accompanying the exhibition reveals that Adele often twisted her hands because one finger was deformed.) Most of the canvas is covered in undulating sections of gold paint: in geometric squares and circles, Egyptian-influenced eyes and, if one looks carefully, A's and B's in gold relief."
Sharon Waxman, The New York Times
THE PAINTINGS AND THE HISTORY
VIENNA
BEFORE
WORLD
WAR
ONE
In the early years of the twentieth
century, Vienna,
the capital of the multinational Habsburg Empire,
was a thriving metropolis enjoying what Austrians
called ”the last sparkle of the imperial age,” while
also leading the way into the future in every area of
art and culture. It was a city with one of the world’s most
vigorous music
and theater scenes, a leading university, and thriving literary coffeehouses.
Composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg, philosopher Ludwig
Wittgenstein, authors Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal,
and
psychologist Sigmund Freud were among the many Viennese residents
who were extending the boundaries of art, thought, and the human
psyche.
The visual arts of the time took part in an international movement
of
cultural renewal, known in England as the Arts and Crafts movement,
in
France as Art Nouveau, and in Germany and Austria as Jugendstil
(Youth Style). This graceful new style was seen everywhere in Vienna,
notably in
the subway stations of architect Otto Wagner and the spare geometric
buildings of Adolf Loos.
Modern artists throughout Europe were breaking away from conservative
official art associations to form independent artists’ collectives,
or “secessions.” The Vienna Secession, of
which Klimt was a prominent
member, consisted of a relatively small and generally like-minded
group
of artists and was closely tied to the decorative arts.
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 x 43 1/4 in. (110 x 110 cm)
Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
GUSTAV KLIMT
Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 into an artistic
Viennese family and received his education
at Vienna’s School of Fine Arts. He began his
career with a commission to decorate the
ceiling of the grand staircase at the Burg
Theater, among the most prominent Viennese
buildings and the most important venue for
high society. His murals for the theater
combined a variety of historical references,
including naturalistic portraits of the city’s
most prominent citizens, and brought him
awards and great prominence. A series of
allegorical paintings he subsequently created
for the University of Vienna, however —
radical treatments of themes such as “Philosophy,” “Jurisprudence,” and "Medicine” — provoked
scorn and ridicule.
Klimt turned his energies to the Vienna
Secession, of which he had been a founding
member. His Secessionist style departed
from his earlier traditional naturalism and
was based on the sinuous linearity of
Jugendstil. He soon became known as the
foremost portraitist of Vienna’s new upper
class, primarily its female members. He
depicted the wives and daughters of these
wealthy families as splendid icons enfolded
in luxuriant patterns. This development
reached spectacular intensity in a handful of
rare paintings in his “gold style.” These portraits
were so labor-intensive that he
averaged only one per year after 1900.
Each portrait required many sketches
(several hundred in the case of Portrait of
Adele Bloch-Bauer I, on which he worked
from 1904 to 1907).
In contrast to these elegant renderings
of the socially prominent, he also painted
landscapes, devoid of any human presence,
that evoked the mystery and richness
of nature.
Klimt died of a stroke in Vienna in 1918,
leaving numerous paintings unfinished.
Oil, silver, and gold on canvas
55 1/8 x 55 1/8 in. (140 x 140 cm)
Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
THE PORTRAITS OF
ADELE BLOCH-BAUER
As the leading exponent of Viennese
Jugendstil in painting, Klimt’s most memorable
works included his dazzling portraits
of Vienna’s leading society ladies, many of
whom were Jewish. One of the best known
of these is his magnificent 1907 painting,
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, portraying
the wife of the industrialist Ferdinand
Bloch-Bauer (the aunt of Maria Altmann).
Foremost among the rare “gold style”
works, the painting captures its elegant and
intelligent subject as the ideal of feminine
beauty. The figure dissolves into sumptuous
patterning reminiscent of the Byzantine
mosaics at Ravenna, Italy, portraying the
Empress Theodora, which Klimt had visited
in 1903. Klimt’s fine craftsmanship in this
work is evident in his varied uses of real
gold: as a diffuse background luster reminiscent
of Japanese lacquer, as the fabric of
a flowing gown, and as a pattern punctuated
with Egyptian god’s-eye motifs. In contrast
with this rich decorative treatment, Adele’s
face stands out as an extraordinarily modern
psychological portrayal, while her hands are
arranged gracefully to conceal a deformed
finger. Self-assured yet introspective, she
comports herself as a woman of privilege
devoted to the world of the intellect.
Transcending the customary role of women
at the time, Adele hosted a salon, a regular
social gatherings of artists, writers, musicians,
and progressive politicians who discussed
the issues of the day.
Adele Bloch-Bauer was the only woman
whose portrait was painted twice by Klimt.
In Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II the artist
abandoned the iconic ambience and gold
decoration of the first portrait in favor of a
more modern approach to color. The vivid
colors are applied spontaneously, yet with a
strong compositional sense. An Asian motif
can be seen in the upper background.
Oil on canvas
74 3/4 x 47 1/4 in. (190 x 120 cm)
Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
THE LANDSCAPES
Beginning in 1900 Klimt spent most summers
on Lake Atter in the Austrian Alps, where he
painted directly from nature. His delicate,
mostly square-format canvases captured his
observations of the tranquil countryside,
untouched by any human presence. In
these paradoxically introspective compositions
Klimt captured the blossoming beauty
of gardens, flowers, and fruit trees in mosaic
patternings of color and light. Their diffuse “impressionist” quality
conveys a sense of timeless calm. The dense brushstrokes
create curtains of color, as in Apple
Tree I, encouraging the viewer to become
lost in the atmosphere of the painting.
Klimt painted his landscapes using telescopes
and opera glasses, and his elimination
of distance is evident in works such as
Beech Woods and Apple Tree I. These are
landscapes entirely lacking in sky, clouds, or
stars, with no reference to time or human
beings. In Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter Klimt includes lodges along the shoreline
set against the surface of the water, with its
reflections and refractions of light and color.
Oil on canvas
42 7/8 x 43 1/4 in. (109 x 110 cm)
Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
THE RETURN OF THE
BLOCH-BAUER PAINTINGS
TO LOS ANGELES
Adele and Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer — the aunt
and uncle of Maria Altmann — lived in an
urban Viennese palace filled with cultural
treasures: exquisite furniture, a worldrenowned
porcelain collection, and paintings
by Gustav Klimt as well as other artists. In
1923 Adele drafted her will, in which she
stated that her husband would be her heir,
but that after Ferdinand’s death the Klimt
paintings would go to the Austrian Gallery.
Adele Bloch-Bauer died of meningitis in 1925
at the age of 43, and at that time all of the
artworks remained in their Viennese home.
When Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Jew,
fled Austria without the Klimt paintings. The new Nazi government saddled him
with a punitive tax bill and engaged a Nazi trustee, Dr. Erich Führer,
to sell his property. Three of the Klimt paintings went to the Austrian Gallery,
and the others were sold elsewhere. After the war such transactions were deemed
void, and the artworks were subject to restitution proceedings.
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer spent most of the war in Switzerland and died in November
1945. When writing his last will he knew that many Austrians had supported
Hitler and did not want the Klimt paintings to go to the Austrian Gallery.
He therefore left his property to his niece, Maria Altmann, and two of her
siblings.
Maria Altmann and the other heirs emigrated to North America. While they
managed to export many works from the Bloch-Bauer collection, the Klimt paintings
remained in Vienna. Austrian authorities ruled that the paintings belonged
to the Austrian Gallery, basing their decision on Adele Bloch-Bauer’s
1923 will.
Until the late 1990s the Bloch-Bauer heirs believed that there was little
that they could do to recover the lost patrimony. In 1998 Austria passed a
law that opened archives and facilitated restitution claims,
and Maria Altmann learned more about the fate of the Bloch-Bauer Klimts. She
engaged an attorney, E. Randol Schoenberg (himself
from a prominent Viennese Jewish family), to recover the paintings. The case
went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in June
2004 that the heirs could sue the state of Austria in a U.S. court. Not wanting
a lengthy legal process with appeals, Schoenberg, representing the 89-year-old
Maria Altmann, entered into legally binding arbitration with the Austrian authorities.
In January 2006 an Austrian panel issued its verdict: of the six paintings
in question, five belonged to the heirs. A decision about the remaining painting
would come at a later date. Maria Altmann and the
heirs could reclaim a part of their family’s history. Just as life has
taken her from Vienna to Los Angeles, so too have the paintings followed this
path.
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 x 43 1/4 in. (110 x 110 cm)
Estate of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
Photo © 2006 Museum Associates/LACMA
We are extremely grateful that the heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer
have allowed the Los Angeles County Museum of Art the historic
opportunity of sharing these paintings with an American public.
Los Angeles was a favored destination of many exiles and émigrés
fleeing Nazi Europe, so it is a particular honor to welcome the
paintings to this city, after arbitration returned them to the
heirs of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer (all of whom found refuge in North America). Without the
assistance of E. Randol
Schoenberg this presentation would not have been possible. We owe
special thanks to
Steven Thomas and Jonathan Petropoulos for their efforts on behalf
of this project. At
LACMA the cooperation of a team of experienced colleagues working
against impossibly
short deadlines has made this showing possible. Particular thanks
are due to CEO and
Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan, President Melody Kanschat,
and Timothy
Benson, Thomas Frick, Joe Fronek, Fred Goldstein, Laura Hardy,
Amy McFarland, Renee
Montgomery, Virginia Rasmussen, and Christine Vigiletti.
Stephanie Barron
Senior Curator of Modern Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art and made possible through the generosity of The Broad
Art Foundation, the Office of Los Angeles County Supervisor
Zev Yaroslavsky, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, Nancy and Dick
Riordan,
AT&T, Herta and Paul Amir, Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg
Foundation, Kathy and Frank Baxter, The Gordon Family Foundation,
Ellen and Andrew Hauptman, Nina and Bobby Kotick, the Robert F.
Maguire III Family, the Peter Norton Family Foundation, Ted Slavin
and Patricia Rubin, Terry and Lionel Bell, Lee
and Lawrence Ramer, and the Robert Gore Rifkind Foundation.
Special support for this exhibition was provided by LACMA's Art
Museum Council.
ART OF THE PERIOD
Explore a selection of artworks from the Jugendstil (Youth Style) artistic movement found in LACMA's Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. The museum has a particularly rich collection of German Expressionist art — paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and illustrated books. This comprehensive collection includes approximately five thousand works on paper and a library of more than seven thousand volumes, many containing original graphics.
|
|
