Large Print Klimt / Schiele Drawings from the Albertina Museum, Vienna The Sackler Wing of galleries Rooms 1, 2 and 3 Do not remove from gallery Klimt/Schiele Drawings from the Albertina Museum, Vienna Royal Academy of Arts The Sackler Wing of Galleries 4th November 2018 to 3rd February 2019 Contents Page 5 Room 1 - Introduction Page 20 Room 2 - Klimt’s Process Page 33 Room 3 - Schiele’s Process Supported by Ömer Koç Supported by Jake and Hélène Marie Shafran The production of RA large print guides is generously supported by Robin Hambro The Sackler Wing of Galleries You are in room 1 4 2 3 1 6 5 Audio Desk Exit to room 2 2 51 1 100 =showcase Exhibition entrance 3 Multimedia tour room 1 Main commentary Descriptive commentary 100 Introduction Moritz Nähr, Gustav Klimt in the 1 Garden of His Studio at Josefstädter Straße, 1912 Egon Schiele, Poster for the 49th 2 51 Secession Exhibition, 1918 4 Room 1 100 Klimt/Schiele Drawings from the Albertina Museum, Vienna When Egon Schiele (1890–1918) moved to Vienna in 1906 to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, he encountered a city caught between the traditional and the modern. Convinced of his own talent and the importance of the artist’s role in society, Schiele looked to the example of Austria’s most famous artist. Gustav Klimt (1862–1918), some twenty- HLJKW\HDUV6FKLHOH¶VVHQLRUKDG¿UVWIRXQG acclaim in the late 1880s painting complex ceiling schemes for grand buildings of Vienna’s Ringstraße (the boulevard that encircles the old city centre). (continued over) 5 His artistic trajectory led him to reject the conventional style of these public FRPPLVVLRQVEHFRPLQJWKHOHDGLQJ¿JXUH of an avant-garde that embraced the idea of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ – the total work of art. Architecture, sculpture, painting, design and decorative arts, freed from any hierarchy, would function together in harmony. Drawing unites all these arts. For both Klimt and Schiele it was a fundamental daily activity, especially drawing from life. A medium of spontaneity and creativity, it also proved central to their artistic dialogue. ,WLVXQFOHDUZKHQWKHWZRDUWLVWV¿UVWPHW in person. Schiele later claimed that it was in 1907, but given that he was an unknown student at the time, this is rather unlikely. Klimt’s presentation at the 1908 Kunstschau (International Art Show) – 6 including his iconic Golden Period work ‘The Kiss’ – proved a revelation for Schiele. Between November 1910 and January 1911 they visited one another’s studios several times and exchanged drawings. When Klimt died of pneumonia following a stroke in February 1918, Schiele visited the morgue to draw his body. On 31 October, Schiele succumbed to the LQÀXHQ]DSDQGHPLF On the centenary of their deaths, some one hundred works on paper gathered here reveal Klimt and Schiele as two of the most innovative draughtsmen of the twentieth century. Further biographical and contextual information is DYDLODEOHLQWKHJDOOHU\JXLGHOHDÀHWDQGDXGLRWRXU All works courtesy of the Albertina Museum, Vienna, unless otherwise stated. 7 Room 1 list of works (clockwise in order of hang) Moritz Nähr (1859–1945) *XVWDY.OLPWLQ3UR¿OH 8 July 1909 Photograph Moritz Nähr 1 (1859–1945) Gustav Klimt in the Garden of His Studio at Josefstädter Straße 1912 Photograph 8 Johannes Fischer (1888–1955) Egon Schiele in Front of the Painting ‘Shrines in the Forest’ 1915 Photograph Johannes Fischer (1888–1955) Egon Schiele in Front of a Mirror, Holding a Cigarette in His Hand 1914 Photograph 9 Gustav Klimt Studies of Romeo Reclining and D0DQLQ3UR¿O3HUGXIRU ‘Shakespeare’s Theatre’ 1886–87 Pencil and black chalk with white heightening on paper ,Q.OLPWUHFHLYHGKLV¿UVWPDMRU public commission: the decoration of Vienna’s new Burgtheater stairwell ceilings with theatrical scenes. The realistic precision and psychological UH¿QHPHQWRIKLVVWXGLHVIRUWKHKHDGRI the dead Romeo and a spectator seen from behind demonstrate Klimt’s exceptional skill as a draughtsman. Rendered three-dimensional by intricate shading and highlights, these drawings UHÀHFWWKHKLJKO\SROLVKHGVW\OHDQGLOOXVRU\ GHSWKRIWKH¿QLVKHGSDLQWLQJV 10 Gustav Klimt Study for ‘Shakespeare’s Theatre’ 1886–87 Black chalk with white heightening on paper Egon Schiele Reclining Female Nude 1908 Pencil and chalk on paper This drawing, probably made in the life- drawing class of Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, already demonstrates Schiele’s departure from the academic drawing style. (continued over) 11 Dispensing with any modelling or details ZLWKLQWKHFRQWRXUVRIWKH¿JXUHKH emphasises the decorative-ornamental line practised by Klimt and the Secessionists. Egon Schiele Stylised Foliage and Blossoms 1908 Pencil and black and coloured chalk on packing paper As a student, Schiele was strongly LQÀXHQFHGE\µ-XJHQGVWLO¶ *HUPDQDQG Viennese Art Nouveau), of which Klimt had been a well- known advocate since the turn of the century. Here, Schiele renders his subject in a ÀDWWHQHGGHFRUDWLYHGHVLJQVFKHPHJLYLQJ equal prominence to both the foreground and background. 12 Egon Schiele The Painter Anton Faistauer 1909 Pencil, coloured crayon and gouache on packing paper This early portrait of Schiele’s friend Anton Faistauer (1887–1930), a fellow painter, reveals some striking resemblances to Klimt’s work from his Golden Period. It replicates the typically Secessionist square format and includes an area of decorative pattern on the armchair. The Secession The Secession was one of a number of artistic groups with which Klimt and Schiele were involved over the course of their careers. (continued over) 13 Founded in 1897 under the motto ‘To the age its art, to art its freedom’, with Klimt as president, the Secession aimed to rejuvenate Austria’s visual arts. The group established links with international modernist artists through independent exhibitions and their journal, ‘Ver Sacrum’ (1897–1903). Secession members produced posters for these exhibitions; Klimt’s design presented here features Athene, the goddess of wisdom, crafts and war. While rejecting the conservatism of the Academy’s history paintings, the Secessionists were deeply interested in the emotive symbolism of the classical world. Their gleaming white modernist exhibition pavilion, topped with a globe of gilt leaves, was conceived as a ‘temple of art’. The Secession’s unity was short-lived; disagreements over the commercial representation of artists led Klimt and his supporters to resign in 1905. 14 Klimt continued to organise rival exhibitions LQ9LHQQDVXFKDVWKHLQÀXHQWLDO.XQVWVFKDX of 1908, and to exhibit his work abroad. Gustav Klimt Poster for the Eighteenth Secession Exhibition ‘Gustav Klimt’ 1903–04 Colour lithograph Egon Schiele 2 Poster for the 51 Forty-ninth Secession Exhibition 1918 Colour lithograph (continued over) 15 Schiele had little direct involvement with the Secession until he was invited to curate its 49th exhibition. His poster design depicts Schiele at the head of a table of artists – a chair at the other end, it is said, was left empty for Klimt, who had died the previous month. &RPSDUHGWR.OLPW¶VUH¿QHGW\SRJUDSK\ Schiele’s design feels almost crude, UHÀHFWLQJKLVFRQWDFWZLWKWKHUDZ aesthetic of Expressionism, which he encountered in Munich in 1912. Gustav Klimt Design for the Journal ‘Ver Sacrum’ 1897–98 Ink on paper 16 Gustav Klimt Design for the Journal ‘Ver Sacrum’ 1897–98 Ink with white gouache corrections on paper Showcase captions Ver Sacrum, special Klimt issue, March 1898 Uncensored poster design by Klimt for the ¿UVW6HFHVVLRQH[KLELWLRQRLOVNHWFKE\ Klimt for ‘Medicine’ (continued over) 17 Showcase captions continued Ver Sacrum, year-bound copy, 1901 Figure studies by Klimt for ‘Medicine’ (issue 6) The Albertina Museum, Vienna. On permanent loan from Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, Wien Ver Sacrum, year-bound copy, 1902 Two installation views from the fourteenth Secession exhibition, with Klimt’s ‘Beethoven Frieze’ on the right-hand page (issue 11) The Albertina Museum, Vienna. On permanent loan from Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, Wien 18 In its early years the Secession saw an H[WUDRUGLQDU\ÀRZHULQJRIWKHJUDSKLFDUWV manifested especially in the monthly journal ‘Ver Sacrum’ (1898–1903), with its innovative square format. 7KH0DUFKLVVXHRILWV¿UVW\HDUZDV completely dedicated to Klimt. It illustrated VRPHRIKLVPRVWVLJQL¿FDQWVWXGLHV paintings and designs, including the uncensored version of his poster with Theseus and the Minotaur (a metaphor for the Secessionists overcoming the establishment). Gustav Klimt Design for the Journal ‘Ver Sacrum’ 1898 Colour lithograph 19 The Sackler Wing of Galleries You are in rooms 2 and 3 4 2 3 1 6 5 Audio Desk 4 6 53 Exit to room 4 3 9 52 5 7 8 Entrance =seating from room 1 =showcase 20 Multimedia tour rooms 2 and 3 Main commentary Descriptive commentary Gustav Klimt, Sketch for ‘Medicine’, 3 52 Squared for Transfer, c. 1900 4 Gustav Klimt, Study for Poetry, ‘Beethoven Frieze’, 1901 5 Gustav Klimt, Study for ‘The Three Ages of Woman’, 1904-5 6 Egon Schiele, The Cellist, 1910 53 7 Egon Schiele, Chrysanthemums, 1910 8 Egon Schiele, Field Landscape (Kreuzberg near Krumau), 1910 9 Egon Schiele, For Art and for My Loved Ones I Will Gladly Endure to the End!, 1912 21 Room 2 Klimt’s Process Klimt’s drawings usually relate to his painted works. He trained at the Viennese Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts), but his preparatory process echoed that promoted by the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts), which Schiele attended. 6WXGLHVRIVSHFL¿FHOHPHQWVFRPSRVLWLRQDO drawings, and sometimes oil sketches would be undertaken. The