1918-Klimt-Moser-Schiele
Collected Beauties

1918 meant a deep incision for art in Austria: the deaths of Gustav Klimt (6.2.1918), Koloman Moser (18.10.1918) and Egon Schiele ( 31.10.1918), with the latter being especially untimely, deprived Vienna’s avant-garde three of its most outstanding exponents in a matter of months. The end of World War I saw not only the demise of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, it also spelt the end to art as a decorative and curative power.

This representative exhibition, which is staged on several floors, grants exciting new insights into the collections of the Lentos, the Nordico and the Upper Austrian State Museum and their ongoing scientific exploration. Klimt, Schiele and Moser set their seal on art in Vienna around 1900 in a way that endures to this day. Approximately 76 masterpieces of the graphic arts and painting by these world famous representatives of Viennese Modernism are examined under different aspects. The questions that are raised concern the often enigmatic biographies of the sitters, the intricate provenances of some of the works of art and various aspects of conservation and restoration. The centenary of the death of these icons of Austria’s art history is a fitting occasion to present new insights in the field of the history of art.

Priceless highlights from the holdings of Linz’s municipal museums – Lentos and Nordico – and the Upper Austrian State Museum, supplemented by works of art loaned by private collectors, will be presented in this form for the first time – three collections, one exhibition!

An exhibition of the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz in collaboration with the Upper Austrian State Museum.

Curators: Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller, Brigitte Reutner, Andreas Strohhammer