Vienna 1900. Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka

For the art world of Vienna, capital of the Austro-Hungrian Empire, the period from the turn of the century until the outbreak of the first world war was one of dramatic change. Klimt, Schiele and Moser all died in 1918. In particular, the two decades saw the seamless transition from Symbolism to Expressionism.
Despite the continuance of the well-established genres and codifications, new aesthetics emerged in portraiture, landscape and allegorical painting. These new forms were sometimes to manifest a deliberately decorative quality.
Naturalistic representation gave way to a stylised reconstruction of reality which led to a reconsideration of viewing angles and the principles of composition and of the role of colour.
This exhibition aims to bring to focus the originality in the paintings of the main protagonists of the Viennese Secession – the movement founded by Klimt and his circle in 1897.