Facing the Modern - The Portrait in Vienna 1900

The National Gallery is currently holding an exhibition focusing on the modernisation of art trhough the portrait during the 20^th century in the turbulent city of Vienna, consisting of art from artists such as Kilmt, Schiele and Kokoschka among many others. It is an insightful view into these leading artists lives, and into the progression of artists mediums and movements in Vienna during the late 19^th century.

Curated by Gemma Blackshaw, the exhibition is split into rooms that are centred on themes, such as children, self-portraiture, middle class and the more morbid (but always present) theme of death. Whilst this way of curating gives the viewer the chance to appreciate a collection of similar artworks, it’s not necessarily the best way to present an exhibition that’s main focus is modernisation. Each room has a mix of art ranging from the mid-19^th century to the early 20^th, and the range of styles during this time makes the title of the exhibition feel insignificant.

Room one gives off a very stately home vibe, with the magnolia coloured walls seeming very old fashioned along with the plain and orthodox individually lit portraiture, setting the initial scene for modernisation to grow from. The contrast between this room and the adjoining room two is striking, as room two is plain, brighter and much more modern, and the first image seen is a brightly, thickly painted Oskar Kokoschka painting, ‘Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat’, setting us up for a refreshing modernist change, which unfortunately seems to stagnate and stay similar throughout the rest of the rooms.

The individual style of each artist also isn’t taken into consideration when curating this exhibition; I found that some works that were both made within the same time period offered me completely different appearances, one seeming to fit in with the classical side of Viennese art and others that looked almost figurative, like Schiele’s passionate, impasto based works. The whole of Vienna wasn’t modernised, but certain artists techniques were, and to say that Vienna itself was modernising is wrong too – the wall readings (which were actually very good and informative and gave a lot of context to the paintings) showed how criticised Kokoschka’s work was at the time, somewhat ironically as his work seemed to be the most commissioned of any of the artists shown, and the main artist that showed a development in techniques. 

Most of the artists shown seemed to have a defining style from the start than actually ‘modernise’ themselves, the only notable changing artist seemed to be Klimt, who starts as a conventional and classical portrait artists but ventures into more colourful and experimental ground. His half-finished portrait of Ria Munk is the first thing you see when you enter the 'death' themed room, and it’s colorful yet sad beauty is the highlight of the exhibition.

The room where the aforementioned painting hangs is the most moving part of the exhibition, showing the death masks of both Klimt and Schiele in the center of the darkly painted and dimly lit room. The wall readings are the most powerful here, giving you intense information about the high suicide rate of Jewish people, the Spanish flu epidemic which took both Schiele and his wife, and the political uncertainty of the city.

Although the exhibition seems to have a wavering focus on modernisation, it always seems to be this way with large scale exhibitions that aren’t focused on one, or a few, artists individually. Sometimes artists get lost, themes become difficult to compose and movements and artists don’t get the individual appreciation they deserve. Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka are undeniably the stars of the show, if only for following the theme of the title the best.

 

Running from the 9 October – 12 January 2014 at the National Gallery, London
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