E xhibition Itinerary Title

Monet to Baselitz Masterpieces of Modernism - The Batliner Collection

Reopening

March 11, 2010

Duration

September 19, 2010

Venue

Jeanne and Donald Kahn Galleries

Curator

Klaus Albrecht Schröder

Catalogue

Masterpieces of Modernism Edited by Klaus Albrecht Schröder, with texts by Rainer Metzger and Klaus Albrecht Schröder. Published by the Albertina in German and English. 320 pages, 200 color illustrations. Available at the Albertina’s museum shop and at www.albertina.at for 29 Euros.

Contact

Albertinaplatz 1, A-1010 Vienna T +43 (0)1 534 83-0 [email protected], www.albertina.at

Museum hours

Daily 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Wed 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Guided tours

Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays at 3:30 p.m., Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., lasting one hour T +43 (0)1 534 83-540, [email protected]

Press Department

Mag. Verena Dahlitz (head) T +43 (0)1 534 83-510, M +43 (0)699 121 78 720

[email protected]

Mag. Barbara Prikoszovits T +43 (0)1 534 83-511, M +43 (0)699 109 81 743

[email protected]

Sarah Wulbrandt T +43 (0)1 534 83-511, M +43 (0)699 109 81 743 Partners of the Albertina

[email protected] Media Partner

Monet to Baselitz Masterpieces of Modernism - The Batliner Collection Since May 2009, the Albertina has been presenting a permanent exhibition from its own holdings. This has become possible through the transfer of the Batliner Collection to the Albertina in 2007. Outstanding works by Paul Klee from the Carl Djerassi Collection and major works from the collection of Eva and Mathias Forberg complete the new presentation, which is additionally rounded off by exhibits from other collections handed over to the Albertina.

The permanent exhibition spans the most fascinating chapters from more than 130 years of art history, from Impressionism to the most recent present. Paintings by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Miró, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagall, and other masters offer a survey of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the Fauves, Expressionism, and the Russian avant-garde. With late works by Picasso and exhibits by Katz and Bacon, the exhibition leads over to the second half of the twentieth century, before it ends with works by contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.

Edgar Degas Two Dancers, c. 1905 Pastel on card

Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

Joan Miro Birds and Insects, 1938 Oil on canvas Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection © VBK, Wien 2009. Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec White Horse „Gazelle“, 1881 Oil on canvas Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

The Batliner Collection The establishment of a comprehensive permanent display ranging from the late nineteenth century to the present was made possible by the two great art patrons Rita and Herbert Batliner and completes the efforts undertaken to reposition the Albertina.

In 2007 Rita and Herbert Batliner transferred their precious art collection, which they had incorporated into a foundation, to the Albertina as a legacy: more than 300 paintings by Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Nolde, Kirchner, Malewitch, Giacometti, Baselitz, Bacon, Richter, and Kiefer, to name just a few.

Rita and Herbert Batliner started collecting art in the 1950s, with their focus increasingly shifting from the masters of classical Modernism to contemporary art. By their ceding this private collection to the Albertina, the museum’s profile has lastingly been changed. The Albertina has not only the biggest graphic collection but also one of the most outstanding photographic collections worldwide. For the first time in its history this traditional museum is able to show a permanent exhibition of paintings reaching from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.

With its new doctrine of a holistic presentation and perception of art, the Albertina has embarked on counteracting the isolation of drawings and prints, taking into account a universal interpretation of art history. However, only through the establishment of this new permanent exhibition has this programmatic presentation of the inseparable unity of artistic creation manifested itself in the Albertina’s own holdings.

The exhibition of the Albertina was able to be completed through the permanent loans from the private collections of Eva and Mathias Forberg and Carl Djerassi.

The Djerassi Collection In addition, 67 drawings, watercolors, and paintings by Paul Klee entered the Albertina in 2008, thanks to a donation (promised gift of the Carl Djerassi Art Trust II) made by Carl Djerassi. This great chemist, to whom the world owes the invention of the birth control pill and who has gained eminence as an author of scientific plays for more than twenty years, is not only an important Klee collector, but also a recognized expert on Klee’s art. Drawing upon his intimate knowledge of Paul Klee’s oeuvre, he has compiled two collections of equal standing over the past decades, which he has donated to the Albertina and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art respectively: his gift to the Albertina was meant as a reconciliatory gesture toward Austria, from where he had been driven by Hitler’s regime in 1938.

The Forberg Collection Thanks to a fortunate circumstance and the generous support of Eva and Mathias Forberg, the groups of works by Paul Klee and Der Blaue Reiter could be bolstered even further. The Swiss collector Mathias Forberg inherited parts of his father’s legendary collection, the major portion of which had been acquired during the first decades after the Second World War. Mathias Forberg and his wife Eva have pursued the expansion of this collection most consistently and with great connoisseurship. Recently they decided to transfer their collection to the Albertina as a permanent loan, thus acting in the spirit of the original Forberg Collection’s founder. This is all the more important as principal works by Kandinsky, Macke, Feininger, Moholy-Nagy, and above all Paul Klee thus intensify existing focal points within the permanent collection.

The Artists in the Exhibition Karel Appel Hans Arp Francis Bacon Georg Baselitz Max Beckmann Herbert Boeckl Pierre Bonnard Constantin Brancusi Georges Braque Heinrich Campendonk Paul Cézanne Marc Chagall Henri-Edmont Cross Edgar Degas Robert Delaunay Paul Delvaux André Derain Kees van Dongen Jean Dubuffet Max Ernst Alexandra Exter Lyonel Feininger Lucio Fontana Sam Francis Alberto Giacometti Augusto Giacometti Natalia Gontscharowa Gotthard Graubner Erich Heckel Hans Hofmann Jörg Immendorff Johannes Itten Alexej von Jawlensky Wassily Kandinsky Alex Katz Anselm Kiefer Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Paul Klee Yves Klein Oskar Kokoschka František Kupka Michail Larionow Fernand Léger

Aristarch Lentulow El Lissitzky Morris Louis August Macke René Magritte Kasimir Malewitsch Giacomo Manzù Franz Marc Henri Matisse Joan Miró László Moholy-Nagy Claude Monet Otto Mueller Edvard Munch Gabriele Münter Emil Nolde Max Pechstein Pablo Picasso Ljubow Popowa Iwan Puni Pierre-Auguste Renoir Germaine Richier Gerhard Richter Georges Rouault Konstantin Rozhdestwenski Théo van Rysselberghe Oskar Schlemmer Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Paul Signac Alfred Sisley Chaim Soutine Nikolai Suetin Wilhelm Thöny Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Maurice de Vlaminck Rudolf Wacker Fritz Wotruba