Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka, Vienne 1900
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. Until 30 january 2006.
In 1900, Vienna explodes.
Illuminated artists try to break with the academic art of the XIXth
century. The dead of the Empire austro-Hungarian confirms this rupture.
The figuration borrows new freedoms of subjects, forms, colors and
expressions. In the shadow of the new freudian explorations still
fresh, invisible energies of the heart and sex shape on the fabric.
Four extraordinary artists represent with authority this path the XXth
century, Klimt, Schiele,
Kokoschka and Moser. Until January 2006 the Grand-Palais gathers the
masterpieces of these explorers of the unconscious in a dazzling
exposure. A manner of recalling us that Vienna also, was capital of the
estheticism in 1900. Klimt was one of the leaders in its time,
not hesitating to draw interior decorations, to repaint ceilings or
woodworks, impressive mural frescos such as the famous Beethoven plank
of the building of the Secession, painted in 1902. A sulfurous
eroticism feeds its multiple portraits of women. Egon Schiele had just
time to become famous then to die of the Spanish influenza at 28 years
only. Also fascinated by an erotic sensuality, he reveals a dark and
tormented sensitivity, as well in its landscapes damaged as in its
morbid couplings. Oscar Kokoschka, the eternal frustrated lover of Alma
Mahler, tardily died in 1980, is a expressionist with the raw
colors. Koloman Moser is a Master of the poster stylized before
the hour but also a brilliant interior designer. Its ebony pieces
of furniture, of pear tree, its armchairs, libraries, are extremely
required today by the collectors of precious historical furnishing.
