ART TREASURES

This exhibition illuminates the multifaceted art collection of the province of Lower Austria and presents outstanding masterworks of Austrian art from the late eighteenth century to the present. The emphasis is on paintings, complemented by selected sculptures and photographs.

KEY WORK BY EGON SCHIELE

The oldest work in the show is a large-scale Baroque altarpiece from 1772 by Martin Johann Schmidt. The newest painting was created by Franziska Maderthaner in 2021. Egon Schiele is represented with several works; his “Decaying Mill” from 1916 is one of the most important works of the Lower Austrian State Collections.

250 YEARS OF AUSTRIAN ART

On display are aristocratic portraits by Johann Peter Krafft, Biedermeier landscape paintings by Franz Steinfeld the Younger, Impressionist atmospheric pictures by Emil Jakob Schindler, and works by the post-war avant-garde artists Maria Lassnig and Arnulf Rainer. Anton Hanak’s highly expressive sculpture “Der letzte Mensch” is to be read as a reaction to the events of World War I.

Spontaneous, intensely colored paintings come from the Neue Wilden (“New Wild Ones”) of the 1980s, such as Herbert Brandl. Works by Franz West and the “One Minute Sculptures” of Erwin Wurm expand the traditional concept of sculpture. With Greta Freist, Hildegard Joos, Florentina Pakosta, Renate Bertlmann, and Die Damen, important female representatives of present-day Austrian art are presented here as well.

The exhibition offers an interesting and enjoyable overview of Austrian art of the past 250 years, bringing together some 120 artworks by 56 artists on two levels.

LITERATURE AND ART

What gives the exhibition its special character is the interplay of art treasures and literary passages–the amalgamation of art and literature opens new perspectives. In 2024 the exhibition will move to the Kunsthalle Tübingen, Germany.

FEATURED ARTISTS

Ferdinand Andri, Friedrich Amerling, Renate Bertlmann, Herbert Boeckl, Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch, Inge Dick, Adolf Frohner, Friedrich Gauermann, Bruno Gironcoli, Hildegard Joos, Johanna Kandl, Oskar Kokoschka, Broncia Koller-Pinell, Johann Peter Krafft, Maria Lassnig, Franziska Maderthaner, Hermann Nitsch, Leo Putz, Arnulf Rainer, Anton Romako, Egon Schiele, Emil Jakob Schindler, Martin Johann Schmidt, Daniel Spoerri, Adalbert Stifter, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Franz West, Erwin Wurm, and others.

Curators:
Gerda Ridler, Nikolaus Kratzer (art)
Walter Grond,Veronika Trubel (literature)

In cooperation with Kunsthalle Tübingen