exhibit #4

Klimt to Klee: Masterworks from the Sabarsky Collection

this exhibit pays tribute to the Neue Galerie's cofounder (the other: Richard Lauder.) Serge Sabarsky, a Vienna native, saw his mission as giving a home to this German modern art; to save the reputation of this culture, so damaged by the political situation of the 1930s and '40s. Ah, I didn't realize until just now, looking it up, just how new the Neue Galerie is; and also that Sabarsky died before the museum was established. Makes the whole exhibit feel somehow sweeter and more compelling.

One of the points they make about Sabarsky was his conviction that art was meant to be looked at, uncluttered and unmuddled by interpretative text, in the museum setting… that might be a misreading of his words, but the main point I think is that he wanted people to be able to look at the painting and enjoy it and interpret it their own way, without the text directing them. This is a concept put into action in this exhibit- there's the optional audio guide, and there are a few explanatory plaques on the floors of the museum, but none of the artworks or the rooms are accompanied by analysis.

Also, it's fascinating in the post-show reflection, to learn more about the way these artists were treated, the specific ways they suffered in the wake of Nazism (holy hell, I'd never heard of this 1937 exhibition until now but it sounds a little bit hilarious and a lot of horrifying.) This is the sort of context that exhibit shies away from delving into, but it helps me appreciate Sabarsky's mission a little more.

first room

Mostly artifacts from Sabarsky's life- pictures of him in the war, honors he received, books he wrote (primarily one about Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele, the Austrian Expressionists.) There's some furniture in the room, and some intense-looking Kokoschka oil portraits. I like Two Girls, the color and the intensity.

second room

Klimt- The Dancer, beautiful springtime color, flat perspective. Egon Schiele- Town Among Greenery (The Old City III)- I like the density, the geometry, the colors… lots of garden landscapes in this room. Adele Bloch Bauer I, one of those pretty-woman-golden dress-golden background-flat but intricate-feminine Klimt pictures. I vaguely suspect that this room does not directly relate to the Sabarsky exhibit, it's just an exhibition space for some of the gallery's star pieces. Very pretty and in tune, at least.

drawing room

one wall by Alfred Kubin, one long wall by Gustav Klimt, 1 1/2 walls by Egon Schiele, 1/2 wall by Oscar Kokoschka.

Kokoschka- emaciated naked girls and a few color scenes.

Kubin- very vividly rendered, finely drawn… dark, strange, haunting imagery. The Last King, a long, giant, emaciated, delicate, sad white King, a horde of black hooded subjects moving about below him. Guilt, a defeated, naked man standing in a desolate lake, bent over, a walrus resting on top of him. Earth: Mother of Us All, a naked pregnant woman, sprinkling seeds, a dark parade of heads laid out behind her… Back to the Womb, coffins floating down a river towards a woman- she is cut in half, and the river ends in the cave of her womb. Female Suicide, a dead, frail, pregnant woman floating down a river, a large catfish following her like a reflection; Turkish Call to Arms, the Turks assembling, Couplet, a cabaret/burlesque woman singing, with two men passed out (dying?) before her… The Devil as Stallion, a black horse looking out on a desolate landscape. Every single one of these drawings is dark, well rendered, imaginative… like illustrations in some nightmarish Alice in Wonderland. This man is a Tim Burton character come to life… a weird, smallish, morbid and melancholy guy. "From 1906 until his death, he lived a withdrawn life in a small castle on a twelfth century estate in Zwickledt, Upper Austria."

Klimt- all nineteen of these relatively large drawings are single-subject portraits of women and girls. (In fact, every drawing in this room besides Kubin's take just a single subject; the overwhelming majority are portraiture.) The girls are smiling; the women are beautiful, slim, refined, well dressed (though a few get more intimate… reclining nudes, laid out on the bed, touching or clearly indicating themselves.) I particularly like Design for 'Tragedy,' a busy and interesting preparatory sketch; the subtle, demure beauty of Young Girl Gazing Downward, and Seated Woman Facing Front, so confident and modern.

Schiele- I really like his drawings. He draws in such a specific way- dark lines, detailed, expressive faces. Stern, businesslike Robert Müller; Woman with a Hat and Veil and Portrait of Dr. Hugo Koller, upper class and weary… wow, one of his drawings is The Dead Gustav Klimt- damn… it's a good picture and also compellingly strange to see the passive, balding, beaten face, across the room from his elegant, sexual pictures of high society women- like the wizard behind the curtain, the vulnerability so utterly exposed. My two favorites are Wally in Red Blouse with Raised Knees and Striding Torso in Green Blouse, I love both of these for the sexual energy… they're seductive and hip, you really feel like Egon slept with them right after they were drawn. It really takes me to this romantic fantasy of the starving Bohemian artist, smokey, sexual, penniless and young and brilliant. I also like Office in the Mühlig Prisoner of War Camp- a clean, spare picture… his way of drawing just makes everything seem livelier. I knew he served in the war, and I thought he died in action in 1918- he actually was claimed by the influenza epidemic. He was respected by the officers and never faced combat- just light duty watching after Russian prisoners.

fourth room (upstairs)

Phenomenal. An extraordinary array of smart, hilarious, devastating drawings, depictions of that fascinating Weimar Republic social chaos.

Max Beckmann- sort of cartoony, sort of realistic… lots of hash marks on the faces… several stark, noirish self portraits… my favorites of his are "I.B. Neumann and Martha Stern," an elegant cafe picture; Disillusioned I and Disillusioned II are both claustrophobic, angular pictures of society- fantastic use of strong lines, phenomenally interesting and well drawn faces.

Otto Dix- a few paintings of nude prostitutes. A few Astonishingly dark and vivid drawings… Sex Murder is Shocking- a woman laid out on a bed, her flash a saggy, scratchy mess, blood oozing out of her mouth, stomach and vagina (and randomly, a black dog passionately humping a mildy confused scruffy dog.) Maude Arizona (Suleika, the Tatooed Wonder), a mostly-nude woman dancing onstage, her body covered with tatoos. Nightly Apparition, an amazing picture… inky, smudgy, chaotic background, a woman in a black shawl and black feathered hat, a horrifying black face- empty black eyes, Jackson nose, a big, crooked, skeletal grin, like a face that has been burned off… mesmerizing. Sketch, 1922, a dazzlingly crazy picture. A demonically grinning little man, waving guns in the direction of a very tall and inexpressive man-giant. There's an ax in his head, a screw driven into his heart, a huge ball and a chair thrown at his shoulders, he is toppling over without reacting, like a dummy, not even putting his limbs in motion.

George Grosz- Extraordinary. I love his stuff- cartoony, political, smart, striking. Pacification Politics- little roachlike, silly men sitting around a table, making their statements and sorting their papers, but they're all in the ugly, brutish arms of the gas-masked soldier. Ballot Box, a sheepish looking Ass man drops his ballot into a big, chipped, steaming tea cup; Holy Picture- Jesus inexpressive as snickering, medieval barbarians burn, whip and saw him… it looks like a pitch black Mad magazine cartoon. It's striking, the way the name and the image play off of eachother- is it sacrliege to see such a gruesome depiction of Jesus labeled 'holy,' or is the ugly irony in the fact that this Is an acceptable 'holy' picture, or (considering the torturers seem to come not from Christ's era but from the Middle Ages) is it a picture about the history of religion, a message distorted to permit and advocate violence and torture?

Also on display by Grosz, a very pretty set of water colored line drawings of characters from Caesar and Cleopatra, the George Bernard Shaw play. Two other larger water color Grosz pictures are striking… his Stage Depictions for 'The Drunken Ship' by Paul Zech… one, a scarred, deformed, clueless Priest with a besmirched cross on one side; on the other side, a snearing, green, ghoulish soldier (blue coat and red pants- French?) holding prison keys and a bloody sword, and in the middle, a circle of gray, inexpressive prisoners, pacing… the other stage depiction: slaves chopping away in the hot yellow glow of the sun, a sinister soldier in blue light with a menacing dog, drinking booze and grinning smugly as he watches after them, ready to punish them at the first sign of fatigue.

This is my favorite room overall- really great, caustically satirical drawings.

hallway

I love the exhibition posters in the hallway. They're all beautiful, clean and detailed in their own way. Particularly I like Schiele's 49th Secession Exhibition; Klimt's 1st Secession Exhibition; Roller's 14th Secession Exhibition, and the linear, primary colored, cartoon faces of Löffler's Cabaret Fledermaus Vienna. These exhibitions apparently refer to the Vienna Secession. Kinda reminds me of the Salon des Refuses.

fifth room

Very pretty paintings by Erich Heckel (particularly Girl with Doll)… colors reminiscent of Gaugin. I also like his drawings- Dancers and White Horses are great… visually they remind me of internet animations. Most of the artists in this room, maybe all of them, belonged to Die Brücke.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner has some great woodcuts here. His Portrait of Oskar Schlemmer is delightful, it reminds me of something I'd make- his face springs off of his head like a paperclip, the slight smile, everything tied together in a few lines. I love the black-white-red color and the urbane subtlety of Gentleman with Lapdog at the Cafe… amusing double meaning, perhaps, in the title.

Hermann Max Pechstein's woodcuts are pretty intense. My favorites of his are Self Portrait in the Studio (black and white, forcefully cut, engaging detail) and the vibrantly colored cultural snapshot Dancer in the Mirror. Any German picture relating to vice or the cabaret piques my interest- as I wrote earlier, I love the chaos of the Weimar Republic, the libertine artistic and cultural spirit. What an incredibly unique slice of human history.

Karl Schmidt-Rotloff, his woodcuts are stylistically similar to Pechstein's except that they feel younger and more dynamic. I love Girl with Cat, I also like the drama and sense of energy in Woman in Forest and Saint Francis. It's interesting- the intensity of the lines, the expression of the face, make St. Francis look like a young revolutionary, like a hip college rebel. Interesting to think of Saints that way… as young troublemakers.

Otto Mueller's Portrait of Eugen… handsome boy. I like his subtly defiant expression.

sixth room

a big room, mostly with mid/small drawings and watercolors.

Ah, I like Schlemmer's Ornamental Sculpture, interesting layers of silver shape, like an X-ray of a wondrous machine.

A wall of Lyonel Feininger… muted drawings of harbor towns. Gray blues, lots of sailing ships. None of them entrall me in particular. Quimper is cool- blue, subtle, thin lines, the shapes are determined by the color tones. A wall of Emil Nolde- eh, okay. I like his more colorful pictures- Portrait of a Man, Couple. Nolde's an interesting case- the only Nazi among the major artists on display. Also it looks like his work is prettier and more interesting, in general, than what's on display here. There's also a pair of Franz Marc woodcuts and one by Kandinsky.

A wall of Klee drawings. Some of them are extremely simple (though playful, anthropomorphic even.) His work is sweet and childlike… I really like Come On, Then- reminds me of me and mom, the silly little characters marching around the page. A postcard he made for the Bauhaus is on display, appropriately (a few little characters.) The Sick Heart is the prettiest piece in the room, a milky/creamy/orange pastel background, with figures simultaneously bright and pale, blue, the heart with a small and precise black hole… it's a pretty and busy picture, I've always appreciated the perfect pastel blend of his color, though the drawings on display are somewhat more alive, more animated. Overall this is a nice but unremarkable room.

There's some cool stuff in this exhibit… that fourth room is a real treasure, and the Kubin/Schiele drawings were pretty fascinating. Overall I wish there were more paintings, I was disappointed not to see more of those. And the title was a bit of a MacGuffin; the best work in this exhibit came from the guys in between Klimt and Klee.