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On the occasion of its 20th anniversary, Neue Galerie New York will open “Modern Worlds: Austrian and German Art, 1890-1940” on November 11th, an exhibition with major works of Austrian and German visual art and design from the permanent collection. One of the highlights will be Carl Moll’s “White Interior”. “We are very proud of it”, says the director of the house, Renée Price.
The Neue Galerie opened on New York’s Fifth Avenue for the first time 20 years ago. “At one of the most difficult hours in the history of New York City,” recalls co-founder and art patron Ronald S. Lauder in a foreword to the exhibition catalog. The official opening was on November 16, 2001. “That was just two months after 9/11. Smoke was still rising in Lower Manhattan. The country was nervous and grieving and the normal hustle and bustle of this vibrant city tried to come back, but there were few tourists. People were scared. ”But“ there were queues around the block almost immediately, ”he continues. A journalist called the gallery “the jewel in the crown of the city’s museum mile”.
Lauder had the idea unofficially in 1968, together with the Viennese art collector and art dealer Serge Sabarsky, who unfortunately no longer saw the opening in the listed Beaux Arts mansion on the Upper East Side. Since November 2001, the Neue Galerie has presented more than 40 exhibitions devoted to Austrian and German art of the early 20th century.
The first thing that catches the eye in the new show on the upper floor is one of the highlights: Carl Moll’s “White Interior” from 1905 , 5 million euros). “A new world record was set here for Carl Moll,” says Renée Price, the Vienna-born director of the Neue Galerie, APA. She was there years before it was founded and she is clearly happy. “Thank goodness we have someone like Mr. Lauder who is passionate about it and has the opportunity to purchase something like this. We are very proud of it and will probably organize an exhibition around this picture in the spring. ”
The Vienna-born Carl Moll, co-founder of the Vienna Secession, showed the Viennese journalist and grande dame Berta Zuckerkandl, who turned her back on the viewer. She wears a “reform dress” that restricts the figure of the woman less than the usual fashion of the time, and the Hoffmannesque interior design of the apartment is also modern. In a collection cupboard on the left edge of the picture, Moll has depicted East Asian figures and porcelain from the Berta and Emil Zuckerkandl collection, such as an elephant by Du Paquier (which is currently on display in the Frick Collection in New York). “Society wanted to show the cosmopolitan,” says the director. “You can see a whole world depicted here.”
It’s hard to stroll through the Neue Galerie without being impressed – even if you’ve been here many times. The pieces have been carefully selected. One highlight follows the next. A moss-green knee swimmer by Adolf Loos invites you to relax. A clock on a pedestal, also by Loos, “a rarity”, stands next to a “very rare” chair by Koloman Moser from the Purkersdorf sanatorium. A jewelery box that Gustav Mahler gave his wife Alma for Christmas rests alongside other treasures in a showcase. Jewelery is being polished for another showcase, including some that Gustav Klimt gave to Emilie Flöge.
Another room is dedicated to Gustav Klimt. The Neue Galerie is known for his paintings and as always on display is his masterpiece, the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I from 1907, which Lauder sold in 2006 for a rumored record price of 135 million dollars – the highest price to date. who was ever paid for a painting – acquired. Lots of people come here just because of the golden lady, says the director, and many curiously ask: “Is the Klimt on view?” That’s him, all year round.
In the catalog, Lauder describes the portrait as the “Mona Lisa of the Neue Galerie” and further writes, “After a tortured path from Nazi theft to a kind of second theft by Austrian officials in the post-war period, this extraordinary work of art now has a permanent place here. I have to say that when this one painting arrived, it completely changed the museum and it remains the central work of our collection. ”
Egon Schiele will also be prominently represented with a rich selection of his masterful works on paper. “You don’t see such a concentrated load of Schiele watercolors in Vienna,” says Renée Price. On the third floor, works by German artists from the collection are presented, including prominent works by the Brücke artists and the Blauer Reiters, and New Objectivity, including the famous “Self-Portrait with Horn” (1938) by Max Beckmann.
The opening of the new exhibition gives visitors access to all premises, for the first time since March 2020, when the Neue Galerie, along with museums in New York City and around the world, was closed in response to the corona pandemic. It was dark for fourteen months. On June 10th of this year it was reopened. New filters had to be installed, says the director, and there are time-staggered tickets for visitors who have to wear mouth and nose protection. “It was a change for everyone,” says Price, “but we were fully booked straight away.” “People have a lot of catching up to do. People wanted to confront themselves with beautiful things in order to be able to hope. ”What do people find so fascinating at the turn of the century? “There is a certain nostalgia for the beautiful. Even with the knowledge of what will come next, the Holocaust ”, says the director.
Café Sabarsky, the in-house Viennese coffee house, is a museum in itself. It is furnished with historical objects, including lighting by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos and benches upholstered in Otto Wagner fabric from 1912. At the entrance there is a picture of Adele Bloch-Bauer wearing a mouth and nose protection. “Mask, please! Mask, please! ”It says. It is also the Neue Galerie’s best-selling postcard these days.
The Austrian chef Kurt Gutenbrunner leased the coffee house for 20 years, but it is now run by the Neue Galerie itself, which has brought Michelin chef Christopher Engel into the house. Sachertorte, apple strudel and Mozarttorte, these are the most popular desserts. There are schnitzel, dumplings and yellow muscat from southern Styria from the Wruss winery with its own Café Sabarsky label. A piece of Austria in the heart of New York – which is certainly not untroubled.
(SERVICE – “Modern Worlds: Austrian and German Art, 1890-1940” can be seen in the Neue Galerie New York until March 13, 2022.)
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