Neue Galerie Graz English

From to the Present The Collection of the Neue Galerie

Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Joanneumsviertel, 8010 Graz T +43–699/1780-9500, Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm [email protected], www.museum-joanneum.at This text is published in conjunction with the permanent exhibition of the Neue Galerie Graz. The Neue Galerie Graz is part of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, founded in 1811 by Archduke Johann. It emerged in 1941 as a result of the division of the Landesbildergalerie into the Alte Galerie and the Neue Galerie. The gallery’s own collection includes artworks from the early 19th century through to the pre- sent. A small selection of works from the extensive collection is on show within the permanent exhibition. On the ground floor of the museum, exhibits range from Classicist paintings through to the pre- decessors of Modernism in Styria in the mid-20th century. On the upper floor, the permanent exhibition continues with a selection of works from the 1960s to the present day. Groundfloor/Level 0: 1794) showing Orpheus, the singer who was reputed to have enchanted man and gods—and Classicism and early Realism even stones—with the magic of his music. Due to the influence of the Following the end of the Napole- Academy of Fine Arts, classicist onic Wars in 1815, Chancellor art played a prominent role within Metternich introduced an oppres- the Austrian art establishment at sive regime to stifle liberal and the turn of the 19th century. Clas- democratic tendencies and sup- sicist artists sought to emulate port the former pre-revolutionary the art of classical antiquity, an system of power in . At the ideal that was equally important same time, the formation of mid- for visual art, architecture and dle-class society led to a change applied art. Art was to embody in artistic motifs. In the course of the conceptions of rational order the 19th century, specific forms of and universal harmony. visual art such as landscape and Johann Nepomuk Schödlberger’s genre painting that sought to Arcadian landscape (1812) repre- emulate reality—the art of what sents a popular classicist motif is known as the ‘Biedermeier’ and mythical subject of the Hel- period (1815–1848)—began to lenistic period (circa 330–30 BC). boom. Descriptive and frequently According to legend, it was a idealised portrayals of everyday place where humankind would scenes, intimately reflecting forever live in peace and harmony. people’­s lives in as much detail as Classicist painters did not strive possible, became increasingly to transcribe immediate reality, popular. but rather to compose a harmoni- Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller is ous landscape containing classi- probably the most significant cal elements. Mythological motifs artist of the Viennese Biedermeier that one could assume were period. In his painting Scene after familiar to the audience were the Maria­zell blaze (1827), the equally popular. A fine example of artist powerfully addresses a this genre is Franz Caucig’s contemporary event (a blaze dev- Orpheus at Eurydice’s grave (circa astated the pilgrimage site in 1827). His intention is to evoke Landscape painting around 1850 compassion in the beholder. He similarly conveys an emotional Following 18th-century enlighten- message in many of his other ment, the conception of sublime, works such as Refuge at the way- unspoiled nature, untouched by side shrine from a thunderstorm man, began to exert growing (1832); An itinerant beggar family influence on art. In addition, rap- receives gifts from poor peasants idly spreading industrialisation in on Christmas Eve (1834) and Joys the 19th century nurtured the of motherhood (1832), in which he desire for relaxation and peace translates the moral conceptions beyond urban areas. The country- of the time into a staged rural side became a synonym for rustic idyll of peasantry. harmony. As a result, landscape With both his caricature-like com- painters gradually turned away positions A comic scene in the from ideally composed land- student’s studio (1828) and A scapes, instead seeking to derive comic scene in the studio (1829), (and to study) their subject mat- Josef Danhauser conveys a ter directly from nature and to humorous impression of his stu- paint as realistically as possible. dent days at the Academy during Friedrich Gauerman­n depicts in the 1820s. his painting Boar attacked by Franz Steinfeld’s views of Lake wolves (1844) a dramatic scene Altaussee with Trisselwand (circa which best illustrates the shift in 1825), Lake Hallstatt (circa 1834), landscape painting around 1850 and Dachstein mountain with and the emerging interest in nat- Lake Gosausee (circa 1855) reflect ural phenomena. Prior to execut- growing endeavour to paint real- ing paintings such as this, it was istic landscapes rather than ren- essential to study the subject der idealistic compositions, as matter thoroughly. Gauermann, was typical of Classicism. for instance, often visited Schön- brunn Zoo or observed the ani- mals on his own estate (which included deer, foxes and eagles). His technique was to execute pencil sketches and oil studies en plein air, which then served as a Portraying the South between basis for his work in the studio. idyll and reality Gauermann’s Homecoming in the thunderstorm at Lake Attersee Foreign countries and cultures (1856) depicts a lively scene. It fascinated many 19th-century shows peasant folk and their herd European artists. They either heading for the sheltering farm- journeyed themselves or drew house, which despite its evident their inspiration from travel narra- shabbiness nevertheless conveys tives, which were becoming highly an air of tranquillity. Poverty here fashionable. However, the Orien- is part of a staged idyll of rural talists’ view of the foreign was life. largely uncritical and exalted, Portrayals of stormy weather, which is why their depicted such as Ignaz Raffalt’s Land- impressions do not necessarily scape with thunderstorm (1843), reflect reality. enjoyed increasing popularity Everyday southern life (especially around 1850. Alongside their in Hungary, Italy and the Orient) attempts to depict a variety of was set amidst the hustle and weather conditions, artists also bustle of streets and markets. strove for a faithful account of Accordingly, Alois Schönn’s Fish nature. market in front of the Porticus Alpine motifs also served to Octaviae in Rome (circa 1878) inspire landscape painting, for describes a typical 19th-century instance in Markus Pernhart’s Italian scene in which ancient The Großglockner mountain (circa monuments, such as the Portico 1850), or Anton Schiffer’s View of of Octavia in this composition, Berchtesgaden­ (circa 1850). play an equally important role Mountaineering and hiking had alongside the assumed cheerful- become fashionable middle-class ness of day-to-day southern life. leisure activities, and hence also The bustling market place in served as popular motifs. which young and old meet con- veys a happy, convivial atmos- phere. Leopold Karl Müller is probably Austria’s most signifi- cant Orientalist painter. In a let- ter, he describes The caravan adopted this approach for their (1876) as ‘by far the best picture I own work, especially to depict have ever painted’. His artistic various times of day and seasons, homeland was Egypt, which he harmony between man and nature visited nine times in all. The pre- and everyday rural life. sent composition attests to (Farmhouse Müller’­s love of multi-figural in Themenau, circa 1882; Dutch scenes and careful attention to landscape, circa 1875) is regarded detail. today as the most significant representative of Austrian Atmos- pheric Realism. Since the 1880s, Atmospheric Realism Schindler had given private tui- tion to Marie Egner (River Thames Established around 1830 not far at Putney Bridge, circa 1888), from , the ‘Barbizon School’ Olga Wisinger-Florian and Carl not only paved the way for Moll. From the 1860s on, he and Impressionism, but also exerted his student colleagues from the considerable influence on Aus- Academy, Eugen Jettel (At the trian painters of what is known as Seine and French farmhouse, both Atmospheric Realism. The artists 1895) and Rudolf Ribarz (Houses who came together in Barbizon by the wayside, 1882) increas- (e. g. Rousseau, Corot, Daubigny ingly turned towards the painters and Diaz de la Peña) introduced a of the Barbizon School for inspira- radical change to 19th-century tion, developing further their landscape painting. Turning away approach to landscape painting. from arranged landscapes and One of the first successful female favouring nature studies instead, Austrian painters, Tina Blau, also they made their first attempts at belonged to Schindler’s circle. ‘plein air’ (outdoor) painting. The However, she went her own way, Barbizon School developed the distinguishing herself from intimate landscape genre (pay- Schindle­r’s art in a quite prosaic sage intime) that would set the fashion. In Szolnok (circa 1873), scene for the expression of per- she depicts a view of the hamlet sonal nature experiences. Aus- south of that became trian Atmospheric Realists home to an influential painter colony during the second half of interest in the subject of sunlight. the 19th century. Enthralled by the His favourite motif was the Italian special light conditions and exotic coastline and its ever-changing atmosphere of the Hungarian atmosphere. lowlands, the Szolnok artists Friederike Koch-Langentreu’s frequently painted impressions of Convalescent woman (circa 1900) the turbulent everyday life. also attests to the interest paint- ers showed in reflecting different moods of light: Brilliant sunlight Impressionism enhances the harmonious impres- sion of the scene and seems to Many Austrian painters drew convey the pensive young wom- inspiration from French Impres- an’s hope for a speedy recovery. sionism. Typical characteristics of Koch-Langentreu belongs, the French Impressionists, the together with Marie von Baselli precursors of modern art who had (Garden of a restaurant, circa exhibited from the 1870s, are 1910), Olga Wisinger-Florian short brush strokes, blurred con- (Pergola at Mentone, circa 1900), tours, painting with unmixed col- Tina Blau and Marie Egner, to the our, study of different light quali- first generation of female painters ties, and seemingly trivial motifs to have gained recognition within of modern urban life. the Austrian art establishment. Theodo­r Hörmann depicts in his composition The building of the Eiffel Tower (1887) an event in Expressionism late 19th-century Paris that stood for a major technical achievement In 1909, Egon Schiele (Edge of in the field of architecture, thus town (Krumau town crescent III), representing a highly modern 1918) founded the ‘Neukunst- motif. Hörmann, who lived in gruppe’ (New Art Group) together France from 1884 to 1890, with his fellow students Oskar adopted an Impressionist Kokoschka and Anton Kolig (Por- ap­proach to painting. trait of a soldier with a red flower, Harbour scene on the Riviera circa 1916). Seeking to distinguish (1888) by Alfred Zoff reflects his themselves from Viennese , the group became a integrated the unfinished portrait precursor of Expressionism in of his patron into the later repre- Vienna. The young artists intro- sentation of Krumau, so that the duced a new artistic perspective person’s head is discernable on in order to break away from tradi- the right of the canvas, just as in tion and focus instead on inde- a picture puzzle. pendent innovation and creative, subjectively experienced stimu- lus. The artist’s own emotions Between the wars determined creative expressivity, dominated by portentous under- Interwar art in Styria was domi- tones in the interplay of form and nated by the conflict between colour. After Schiele’s death in international modernist tenden- 1918, Austrian Expressionism cies on the one hand, and politi- continued to flourish mainly cal and public demand for tradi- within the Southern Carinthian tional Austrian and Styrian art on ‘Nötscher Kreis’ (Nötsch Circle) the other hand. In the critical under Anton Kolig. period following the end of World Painted in 1918, Egon Schiele’s War I and collapse of the Austro- Edge of town (Krumau town cres- Hungarian Empire in 1918, pre- cent III) is the most valuable vailing questions relating to painting at the Neue Galerie Graz. social renewal in the art scene It was acquired for the collection resulted in the foundation of the by way of exchange in 1956. The ‘Werkbund Freiland’ reform move- composition displays a frequent ment. One of its active members motif in Schiele’s works: Krumau was Axl Leskoschek (The doppel- (Český Krumlov), the birthplace of ganger, 1945) presented here. his mother and his temporary Exhibitions shown by the ‘Werk- residence in 1911. In 2011, while bund Freiland’ were sometimes restoring the picture, it was dis- heavily criticised by the press and covered that the portrait of a number of works were dismissed Heinric­h Benesc­h on the reverse as being morbid and abnormal. side of the canvas was actually a In 1923, the ‘Graz Sezession’ was stain from the painting on the founded. Among its founders were front. Schiele had apparently a number of artists shown here, Alfred Wickenburg (Still life with the ‘Anschluss’ had a devastating books, 1937), Axl Leskoschek and effect on the Graz Sezession. Wilhelm Thöny (Lady at the zoo, Lootings and house searches took circa 1935), who was the associa- place, artistic works were confis- tion’s first president. During the cated or destroyed. All modernist course of the 1920s through to stylistic movements were forbid- the early years of the following den. Many of the regime’s politi- decade, there was notable inter- cal opponents fled the country; est in modernist tendencies and some (such as Wilhelm Thöny) the local avant-garde enjoyed had already left years before. some initial international success. From 1939 on, Austrian art was At the same time, however, a subject to the strict control of the reactionary demand for the tradi- National Socialist ‘Reich Chamber tionally ‘native’ and pre-fascist of Visual Arts’. Subsequently, movements gradually gained the many remaining artists either upper hand. adapted their style to the require- In the aftermath of the fall of ments of Nazi ideology (including democracy in Austria during the some artists who had previously 1930s, progressive art was followed modernist tendencies), increasingly suppressed and or stopped practising art com- political opponents persecuted. pletely. Only very few took the Art productions were expected to risk of continuing modernist reflect the ideology of the styles, such as Herbert Boeckl ‘Ständestaat’ (Corporate State), (Erzberg, 1942), or offering politi- yet artists such as Kurt Weber cal resistance. (Paris, 1935) and Ernst Paar (Inte- rior with waste-paper basket in front of a window, 1933) still Post-1945 avant-garde in Styria attempted to continue their work on an international scale. Political From 1945 on, abstract painting conflict within the Graz Sezession was to play an important role in grew rapidly during the period of the development of Austrian art, Austria’s impending annexation as can be seen in these works by through Nazi Germany prior to Franz Rogler (White relief, 1946), March 1938. When it finally came, Friedric­h Aduatz (Walls, 1948), Gottfried Fabian (Entrance to Par- Upper floor/Level 1: adise, 1955) and Rudolf Pointner (Untitled, 1958), who was presi- dent of the Graz Sezession from Ways to Abstraction 1953. Abstract painting embraces a variety of forms, all of which The Second World War was a commonly represent the ‘nonfigu- period of cultural isolation for rative’, thus ruling out strict tran- Austria. As a result, the post-war scription of reality in many differ- years saw renewed efforts to tie ent (or even conflicting) ways. in with the international art Informel and Abstract Expression- world, whose focus during the ism, which had a major impact on 1950s lay chiefly in various forms Styrian art, amongst others, of Abstraction. Apart from this, understood painting as a non- the question was how far artistic conceptual spontaneous outburst expression could even be possible of emotion, and artwork as a pro- after the horrific turmoil of war. cess, rather than a final product. Arnulf Rainer (Repainted mother- Paralysed by the horrors of World in-law monument, 1971) devel- War II, many Austrian artists oped his ‘painting, in order to believed this to be the only leave painting behind’: His over- remaining form of expression or, paintings symbolically covered at least, as a possibility to restart existing pictures with black paint. artistic production. At the same time, this process of obliteration and negation never- theless created a new picture— and a new form of painting. Arnulf Rainer and Maria Lassnig (Proposal for a sculpture, 1966) were among the first artists who tried to establish the ‘Informel’ in Austria—a variant of Abstract art, which they had encountered dur- ing a trip to Paris. This gives them a key position in Austrian art his- tory. Maria Lassnig ultimately developed the independent posi- art-inherent, media-specific tion of ‘body awareness painting’, issues. Instead, these movements in which she transfers to canvas sought to emphasise the voicing her immediate reality, the feelings of individual feeling, of expressiv- (of pressure, tension, strain) from ity in the image. The director of the ‘confines of her body’. the Neue Galerie at that time, A particular catalyst in the Wilfried Skreiner, encouraged Abstract movements of the post- Austrian ‘New Painting’. war period was, without doubt, One of its chief proponents was Monsignore Otto Mauer’s gallery Siegfried Anzinger (Y-man, 1983), Nächst St. Stephan in Vienna, whose pictures address themes which especially supported the such as fear, brutality and transi- young artists Arnulf Rainer, ence, also examining an exciting Wolfgan­g Hollegha (Piece of vitality and strongly challenged wood III, 1966), Josef Mikl and sexuality. A passionate hiker, Markus Prachensky. The basis of Herbert Brandl takes nature and Wolfgang Hollegha’s paintings is the landscape as the subject of nature and individual objects from his paintings. Waterfall 2 (1983) external reality, although these expresses the intense experience are only depicted in an associa- and observation of nature in such tive sense. The motif remains a way that viewers of the painting abstract, even if its inspiration can also see and feel this. does derive from the represen­ tational. Art as visual research

Painting of the 1980s ‘Concrete Art’ is a movement within geometric Abstraction, During the 1980s art was shaped which strictly distances itself by a desire to revive the medium from representational depiction. of painting, previously declared External reality no longer plays dead. Various movements within any role in the artistic representa- this ‘painting boom’ were distinct tion, not even as inspiration, as from the mainly conceptual ten- was still the case for instance in dencies in art, which investigated the works of Wolfgan­g Hollegha or Herbert Brandl. Neither does Image—concept—perception the artwork serve as an expres- sion of the artist’s emotional Art that involves and includes its world; rather, it claims its own viewers and their perception reality. It is determined by raises certain issues: what is the rational structures, clear organi- picture/the artwork, how do we sation and mathematical princi- understand it, how do we perceive ples. Richard Kriesche (Variation it in varying conditions? A number 12, No. 22, 1966) confronts us of artists make use of irritation in with a clearly regular structure in order to illustrate this. With Unti- which particular colours and (geo- tled (1987), Georg Herold turns metric) shapes are used according our notion of sculpture on its to discernible rules. The work head: he uses ‘simple’ materials conveys a well-ordered dimension such as brick, linen and chip- in which no one colour or shape board, but makes it seem as if the dominates another. heavy brick and the light linen In Op Art, interest shifted to the have exchanged their weights. optics of the human eye. A playful Michelangelo Pistoletto (Solidar- aspect was introduced into the ity, 2007) makes the viewers part artwork by evoking illusions and of the picture, using the mirror to tricking our visual perception, incorporate us into it. Space and meaning that the gaze of the our conventions for organising it viewer plays a crucial role. By are no longer valid in the mirror’s looking at the artwork, we ‘acti- reflection: left becomes right, and vate’ it. So, for example, we per- the people who seem to be stand- ceive Ludwig Wilding’s Kinetic ing behind us (we can see their object (1971) as moving—yet this backs) are suddenly opposite is only an illusion. The work QCR4 within the space of the mirror’s (1975) by Franco Costalonga image. In addition to this, the actually does move—of its own variability of the artwork assumes accord—and in doing so gradually a key importance here: it looks changes its appearance and the different every time, depending effect it has on us. on where it is hanging and who is looking at it. Image – object – space

Visual artwork, object and space are intimately connected. Made of plywood and graphite, Untitled (1987) by Jürg Stäuble interferes directly with the exhibition space, so changing its relationship with the viewers. Our route through the exhibition is cut off by an obstacle, which at once demands our attention. Erwin Thorn’s Sat- urday at 8 (1968) also attracts attention by leaving the usual sphere of an artwork hanging on the wall: its canvas curves out towards us, and can be inter- preted as picture, object and spa- tial intervention in equal measure. Likewise, Peter Kogler (Untitled, 2001) changes our perception of spatiality. His patterns and struc- tures spread exuberantly across walls and ceilings, as can be seen, for instance, in the entrance hall to the main railway station in Graz.

Curator Peter Peer Text Antonia Veitschegger Translation Kate Howlett-Jones Graphic concept and design Lichtwitz – Büro für visuelle Kommunikation Layout Karin Buol-Wischenau

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