Art Eyewitness Review: Klimt Landscapes at the Neue Galerie

Klimt Landscapes

Neue Galerie, Feb. 15- May 6, 2024

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

One of the most important reference works used to research Art Eyewitness reviews is The Oxford Dictionary of Art. Edited by Ian Chilvers. this Oxford volume is noteworthy for its succinct, incisive essays, providing essential data on major artists and art movements.

After visiting the sensational Klimt: Landscapes exhibition at the Neue Galerie in New York City, it was a sensible course of action to consult the Oxford Dictionary of Art in order to read their comments on Herr Klimt’s Landschaften.

The analysis of Klimt in the Oxford volume was certainly up to the high standards on other artists when I have used the book in the past. But there was one “down" note - and a.big one! There was no coverage devoted to Klimt’s landscape paintings in the entry for him. 

This seeming omission could only have been caused by one of two reasons: (A) the Oxford Dictionary of Art discounted the importance of Klimt’s landscapes (B) the Neue Galerie, aware of Klimt’s popularity, promoted a minor facet of the Austrian artist’s paintings to a starring role in a major exhibition.

The correct answer is (C) none of the above.

  Anne Schlechter, Photo (2024) 

Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie

Klimt’s Landscapes, on view in the glistening special exhibition galleries of the Neue Galerie, do not fit easily into the timeline of Klimt's artistic development. 

Klimt's career trajectory experienced a radical break around the year 1900. On the one hand, these idyllic nature scenes, on view at the Neue Galerie until May 6, 2024, seem like a return to earlier, traditional work, but the revolutionary implications are quickly apparent the more you study them.

Gustav Klimt, Park at Kammer Castle, 1909

Klimt’s landscapes, painted during his summer vacations, were a special category of creative expression. These were works of exploration, not of the exactitude of the natural world, but rather of the spirit of nature and of Klimt’s own soul.

Each year from 1897 to 1917, Klimt spent part of the summer months painting in country resort areas. The annual Austrian holiday tradition, sometimes lasting as long as two months, was known as the Sommerfrische.

Klimt's summer paradise of choice was the Salzkammergut, the lake region of Austria. In particular, Klimt loved the area around the Attersee. This idyllic lake and the nearby villas, cozy cottages and the surrounding gardens provided the locales for Klimt's landscapes. Particular attractions were the imposing castle with accomadations for vacationers, Schloss Kammer, and the Forrester's House near the town of Weissenbach on the southern shore of Lake Attersee.

Gustav Klimt, Forester’s House in Weissenbach II (Garden), 1914

It was while staying at Weissenbach in July 1914 that Klimt heard the news of the outbreak of World War I. Although Klimt returned to Weissenbach in the summers of 1915 and 1916, the 1914 declaration of war marked the beginning of the end of his world, the golden age of Austrian art.

During his wartime summer visits, Klimt ventured deeper and deeper into the depths of the forest glades. The local people of Weissenbach started calling him the "woodland gnome." But scenery was not the only attraction for Klimt in the enchanted realm of the Salzkammergut. It was there that he could cultivate his remarkable association with a brilliant fashion designer named Emilie Flöge. 

                                    Heinrich Bohler                                     

  Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge, Kammerl/Attersee, 1909  

Emilie Flöge (1874-1952).was Klimt's sister-in-law. The exact parameters of their relationship have never been definitively established. They certainly were an unforgettable sight when together, Klimt looking like a magus in his painter's smock, Emilie wearing one of her trademark Reform Dresses. What can be said of them is that theirs was a close friendship and a creative collaboration based, in part, on a mutual love of nature.

The Neue Galerie has one of Emelie Flöge's Reform Dresses on view (center, below) in the exhibition. These dresses were intended to be stylish and comfortable, bucking the trend of restrictive women's apparel like corsets and hobble skirts. Indeed they were; but few sold. 

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) 

Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie

At center, a Reform Dress & portrait of Emelie Flöge by Madame d'Ora 

The  gallery photos also highlight one of the most notable features of Klimt Landscapes: the diversity of the exhibited works. 

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) 

Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, showing prints by Gustav Klimt & Wiener Werkstatte jewelry by Kolomon Moser & Josef Hoffmann

Photographs (including some examples of color photography from the period), sketches and drawings by Klimt, a reproduction of his famous painting smock and jewelry from the WIener Werkstatte document Klimt's social milieu and one of the major principles of his life's work, gesamtkunstwerk, creative expression as a "total work of art."

The exhibition has an excellent sampling of Klimt's landscape paintings, a half dozen. This is just enough to enable us to appreciate these wondrous "dreamscapes" which were true plein air works, painted outdoors. 

An entire gallery of Klimt landscapes would have been almost hypnotic in its beauty. However, most of these works are the same shape and size (rectangular, approximately 39 x 39 inches, 101 x 101 cm), similar in color scheme and devoid of human presence. 

I would be the last person in the world to say that, if you have seen one Klimt landscape, you have seen them all. However, the select number on view really is a case of "less is more." By limiting the number of landscapes, the curators of the exhibit enable us to focus more readily on those on view. Klimt's artistic technique and his stress on nature's propensity to "increase and multiply," on generation and growth, are emphatically underscored.

No better time of the year for depicting nature's bounty could be imagined than summer. No better place existed for the Sommerfrische than Lake Attersee.

                                                    Emma Bacher-Teschner                                           Gustav Klimt in a row boat in front of the Villa Paulick, 1909

For Klimt, the Sommerfrische was partly a working vacation, along with plenty of hiking and rowing. In the early years covered by the Neue Galerie exhibit, Klimt brought design work for major commissions to the country villas or cottages he rented for his Sommerfrische. These included preliminary studies for the hugely controversial series of allegories for the University of Vienna (1894-1905) and the far more popularly-received mosaic for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1909-1911).

The landscape paintings on display in the Neue Gallerie exhibit all date from after 1900. Appearances to the contrary, these works have more in common with the erotically-charged allegories which shook the pillars of academe at the University of Vienna than they do with the rather tame evocations of Impressionism or Symbolism which Klimt painted prior to 1900.

Gustav Klimt, Two Girl’s with Oleander, ca. 1890-92

Klimt was trained in theories and techniques of art rooted in Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance. His early work was well-received and not especially remarkable. Then, around the turn of the twentieth century, Klimt’s major theme in art shifted to the ideal of fecundity or the life force in nature. It goes without saying that this reproductive urge applied to human beings as well.

Life force was everywhere. It was a philosophical tenet of major importance throughout Europe at this time. In the Germanic-speaking lands, lebenskraft, and elan vital in France, was promulgated with such conviction that it carried through to almost every facet of life, from the idea of progress in society to militaristic assertions that the “will to victory” would ensure battlefield success.

Klimt envisioned life force in earthy, sensual terms. Then, in the idyllic surroundings of the Attersee, he evoked this vision en plein air, done entirely without preliminary sketches. Lebenscraft guided his brush.

Gustav Klimt, The Large Poplar, I, 1900

Klimt's The Large Poplar is the earliest of the landscapes on view, dating to 1900. Klimt was a great admirer of Claude Monet but these towering trees are nothing like the series of poplars bordering the Epte River as painted by the Impressionist master in 1891.

In certain respects, there is a greater similarity to the cypress trees which figured so often in another of Klimt's favorites, Vincent van Gogh. Yet, Klimt did not get the opportunity to study Van Gogh until 1903 when Klimt's own Vienna Secession group mounted an exhibition of modernist works with six Van Gogh paintings on view.

Gustav Klimt, Reproduction of Sunflower, 1907-08

The 1903 exhibition was a momentous occasion for Klimt. A Van Gogh Sunflowers was one of the selected works. It made a big impact on Klimt who painted his own rendition in a 1907 painting, which reappeared as a print in his collected works, Das Werk von Gustav Klimt (1918). 

But all this  was three years after the fact, as far as exerting any influence on Large Poplar and Klimt's "radical" transformation of 1900.

Where then did Klimt, who had little formal training in landscape painting, go for insights and inspiration as he sought to evoke the scenic locales of his Sommerfrisch? The influence of Georges Seurat and the Neo-Impressionist school are obvious candidates as exemplars of the myriad of tiny dots which filled Klimt's canvasses. But, however aware Klimt was of the scientific principles underlying Pointillism, this was not his guiding star.

The bounty, abundance, the sheer multiplicity of nature was the source of Klimt's fantastical vision of the Sommerfrische world around him.

Gustav Klimt, Pear Tree (Pear Trees), 1903

Millions upon millions of grains of pollen, seedlings, blossoms, flowers opening their petals to the sun and glistening green leaves appear in Klimt’s landscapes. Captured in dense patterns of dots and speckles of oil paint and displayed on the walls of the Neue Galerie, these images testify to the Austrian artist's insight into the natural world.

As Anne and I soon discovered, confirmation of Klimt's approach to nature beckoned just a little beyond the museum's doors.

Anne Lloyd, View of Central Park, New York City, April 22, 2024

Anne and I departed from Klimt Landscapes, greatly impressed by this latest  triumph for the Neue Gallerie. 

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) 

Staircase & Entrance to Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie

After leaving the Neue Galerie, we decided to spend a few minutes in Central Park taking a couple of pictures. It was then that we saw what Klimt envisioned and painted: life force, lebenskraft.

Anne and I had intended to stop at The Met for a quick visit after leaving the Neue Galerie. We never made it. Ninety minutes and countless photos of Central Park in all its glory - then time to head home.

Anne Lloyd, Spring Blossoms & Foliage, Central Park, April 22, 2024

Anne's three photos shown here give only the merest hint of the beauty we glimpsed just across Fifth Avenue from the Neue Galerie - beauty that had to be seen to be believed.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) 

A "Klimt Landscape" in Central Park

All this happened on a beautiful Monday in late April. There was some kind of magic going on, in the Neue Galerie's Klimt Landscapes exhibition and in Central Park. 

It was a little early, as least by the calendar, for Sommerfrisch. But the "magic" was right on time for lebenskraft.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved; original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd

Introductory Image: Moriz Nahr (Austrian, 1859-1945) Gustav Klimt in the garden of his studio at Josefstädter Strasse 21, April/May, 1911 (Detail). Vintage gelatin silver print Neue Galerie New York.

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie. Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian,1862-1918) Park at Kammer Castle, 1909. Oil on canvas. Neue Galerie New York. Part of the collection of Estée Lauder and made available through the generosity of Estée Lauder.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian,1862-1918) Forester’s House in Weissenbach II (Garden), 1914. Oil on canvas. Neue Galerie New York. Part of the collection of Estée Lauder and made available through the generosity of Estée Lauder. Photo by Hulya Kolabas.

Heinrich Bohler, Gustav Klimt and Emilie Flöge, Kammerl/Attersee, 1909.  Heliogravure, Neue Galerie New York.

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) Installation view of Klimt Landscapes, showing prints by Gustav Klimt & Wiener Werkstatte jewelry by Kolomon Moser & Josef Hoffmann. Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie

Emma Bacher-Teschner,(Nee Paulick) (Austrian,1867-1948) Gustav Klimt in a row boat in front of the Villa Paulick,Seewalchen/Attersee, 1909. Vintage gelatin silver print. Neue Galerie New York.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian,1862-1918) Two Girl’s with Oleander, ca. 1890-92. Oil on canvas. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. The Douglas Tracy Smith and Dorothy Potter Smith Fund and The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian,1862-1918) The Large Poplar, I, 1900. Oil on canvas. Neue Galerie New York. Part of the collection of Estée Lauder and made available through the generosity of Estée Lauder.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918) Reproduction of Sunflower, 1907-08. Collotype with gold intaglio Printer: K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei First Publisher: H. O. Miethke, 1908-14 Reissued: Hugo Heller Kunstverlag, 1918 Neue Galerie New York.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918) Pear Tree (Pear Trees), 1903 (later reworked) Oil and casein on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Otto Kallir.

Anne Lloyd,Photo (2024) View of Central Park, New York City, April 22, 2024.

Anne Schlechter Photo (2024) Staircase & Entrance to Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie. Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) Spring Blossoms & Foliage, Central Park, April 22, 2024

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024) A "Klimt Landscape" in Central Park.

Art Eyewitness Review: The Ronald S. Lauder Collection at the Neue Galerie

 

The Ronald S. Lauder Collection

The Neue Galerie, New York City

November 11, 2022 - March 20, 2023

Reviewed by Ed Voves

November 11, 2001 was not a particularly favorable moment to open a new art museum in New York City. Exactly one month before, terrorist attacks had destroyed the World Trade Center, the death toll eventually being reckoned at 2,753. Over two hundred more were killed in related acts of 9/11 terrorism. New York City, America and the civilized world were stunned.

Despite the shock, Ronald Lauder went ahead with opening the doors to his splendid museum, located at 1048 Fifth Avenue, at 86th Street. The Neue Galerie, named for a famous German art gallery from the 1920’s had been conceived nearly thirty years before to showcase art from one of the most glittering, yet controversial, eras in modern history, the art of Germany and Austria, 1890-1940. 

View of the Neue Galerie entrance. 

Photo: courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

When it opened in the autumn of 2001, the Neue Galerie achieved that goal and more. It quickly became a beacon of culture, an affirmation of civilization in a time of cruelty and horror.

Twenty-plus years later – the Neue Galerie remains so.

The Neue Galerie is currently hosting a special exhibition to celebrate its first two decades. The exhibit is not so much a look back, but rather surveys Ronald Lauder’s devotion to art and humanity, sixty-five years of collecting works of art from an impressive range of genres and historical eras. 

On view in The Ronald S. Lauder Collection are Greek and Roman portrait busts, works of medieval devotional art, gold-ground paintings from the early Renaissance in Italy, spectacular examples of knightly armor from the 1400's-1500's and, of course, Austrian and German art from that all-too-brief flowering of genius and creativity in the half-century before World War II.

The Ronald S. Lauder Collection, on view until March 20, 2023, might seem a slight departure from the thematic range of many of the nearly fifty special exhibitions which the museum curators at the Neue Galerie have mounted since March 2003. The premier exhibit examined the hard-hitting realism of German art during the 1920's, Christian Schad and the Neue Sachlicheit. 

Since then, Neue Galerie curators have addressed many provocative issues, such as the self-portraits created by German and Austrian artists during the run-up to World War II. Even with the 2018 exhibition of the paintings of Franz Marc and August Macke, one of the most beautiful art shows I have ever witnessed, the staff curators at the Neue Galerie have never flinched, never dodged serious, unsettling aspects of art.

German Weimar-era art from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection

  Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

One of the main galleries utilized for the present exhibition is devoted to the Neue Sachlicheit era, brilliant, brittle, sexually-charged. Aside from these often disturbing remains of Weimar Germany, this exhibit is a joy to behold. 

Entrance to The Ronald S. Lauder Collection at Neue Galerie New York Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

Beginning with its opening work of art, a wonderful late medieval tapestry, The Ronald S. Lauder Collection is a marvelous evocation of collecting, preserving and displaying cherished works of art.

Pasquier Grenier, Loggers Tapestry, 1460-1470

The galleries devoted to Ronald Lauder's collection of Renaissance-era armor and classical statuary are magnificent arrays of art, each piece a major work in its own right, and collectively part of a forthright assertion of the continuing importance of these masterpieces. The Neue Gallerie curators have displayed Lauder's treasures to brilliant effect, testifying that these time-honored pieces have lost none of their power.

Installation view of The Ronald S. Lauder Collection at Neue Galerie New York. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

A skeptic visiting the Neue Galerie might take issue with including armor from the 1500's and ancient statues as being at odds with the impact of the Neue Galerie exhibits in the years since 2003. Might the display of gleaming Renaissance armor and the marble faces of Roman emperors be somewhat out-of-place (or out-of-date) in a museum noted for thoughtful examinations of the Nazi campaign against Modernism or insightful surveys of the sensual art of Egon Schiele? 

Egon Schiele, Triple Self-Portrait, 1913

The answer to any such fault-finding speculation is an emphatic no.

Each of the works of art on view in The Ronald S. Lauder Collection testifies to astute, judicious standards of selection. Each can provide serious matter for reflection, if we are willing to make the effort.

After considering this splendid collection as an integrated assemblage, I feel that that there is a common theme which links the interests of Ronald Lauder to the important issues which the Neue Galerie has explored in the years since its founding. This unifying theme is nothing less than the constant threat of disintegration and collapse facing Civilization and the resilience of artists and patrons when human society confronts a perilous future.

The great era of Austrian and German art, 1890-1940, was such an time.  Gustav Klimt, Kolomon Moser and other Neue Galerie luminaries lived in an age fraught with political and social tension, psychological anxiety and challenges to cultural norms whose roots stretched back to the Middle Ages. 

Carl Moll, White Interior, 1905

We marvel, for instance,  at the exquisite silver Coffee Service designed by Josef Hoffman and created by the Weiner Werkstatte in 1907-1908, or the goulash plates Hoffman designed for the Cafe Fledermaus. Looking at these gleaming objects or at Carl Moll's 1905 painting, White Interior, it is hard to conceive of this period of history as anything but a blissful time of  gemütlichkeit. 

And yet...

These were years lived in the shadow of the 1898 assassination of the Empress Elizabeth. These were years when the drumbeat of war would result in a needless, futile conflict which led to the total destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. And finally, these years climaxed in the 1918 pandemic, the misnamed Spanish influenza, which killed thousands in Vienna including Egon Schiele and his pregnant wife.

Austrian gallery from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection

  Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

The contrast between such grim historical realities and artistic beauty is especially marked in the gallery devoted to Austrian artists and designers like Klimt and Hoffman. But if we look closely at the faces of the Greek and Roman leaders displayed in the room devoted to ancient art, we will find traces of anxiety and ironic feeling not far different from what we see in the modern German and Austrian portraits painted by Klimt, Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad. 

A brief look at the identity of just a few of the ancient "faces" in the Lauder collection will dispel any temptation to place them in some Olympian "hall of fame." 

Ancient portrait busts from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection

  Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

The top, left-hand, bust is that of Julius Caesar, struck-down by his colleagues in the Roman Senate. Next to Caesar is Alexander the Great, whom a number of historians conclude was likely poisoned by his generals. Who the tousled-hair individual on Alexander's left is not known, but his fearful expression hardly equates with any sense of ancient serenity. Appearing below this trio is Livia Drusilla, the "poisonous" empress well-known to readers of I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Next to Livia is Trajan Decius, the first Roman emperor killed in battle, when a wave of Germanic marauders breached Rome's frontier defenses in the year 251.

Did Ronald Lauder and the curators at the Neue Galerie organize this display of ancient portraits to make a statement on the fragility of political power or the fickleness of fate? Most-likely not, but the accompanying wall text shows a great awareness of two of the major features of classical sculpture, namely the constant probing of the human psyche and experimentation in depicting bodily movement and facial expression by ancient artists. 

The urge to escape the static sensibility of pre-Classical art, in order to better convey reality through the rendering of the human figure, gave impetus to experimentation. This resulted in the visual play that focused on the contrast between taut and relaxed forms and between balance and static equilibrium. The search for movement on the basis of observation resulted in the development of a new canon for the representation of the body.

This dynamism in charting the way that the human body looks and moves, as well as the powerful emotional forces at work beneath the skin, unite these ancient portraits with those of later eras. 

Monumental Head of a Goddess, mid-second century BCE

It is no coincidence that we are able to study the Hellenistic Greek masterpiece, Monumental Head of a Goddess in the same exhibition as Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, the "goddess" of the Neue Galerie collection. 

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907

Between these ancient and modern depictions of human face and form, there was the thousand-year medieval era. These were the Dark Ages to scholars and art lovers of a certain cast of mind, an Age of Faith to others. What we can say is that around the time that the Emperor Justinian I ordered the closing of the Platonic Academy in the year 529, the conventions of art shifted almost exclusively to other-worldly, religious themes. 

Since the Neue Galerie collection and special exhibitions concentrate on German and Austrian art, 1890-1940, religious art is rather conspicuous by its absence at the museum. One could hardly expect otherwise, as one of the major thinkers of that era had declared that God was dead!

It comes as no small surprise that The Ronald S. Lauder Collection exhibition is graced by a magnificent display of treasures from the Middle Ages, the early Renaissance and the Baroque period in Italy. All three historical eras were notable for the religious sentiment of artists, scholars and the general populace. Almost all of the works displayed are devotional objects with the exception of a chess piece from the famous Lewis Hoard, discovered in Scotland, but most likely made in Norway, ca. 1200.

       Early Renaissance paintings from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection          Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

The range of art works in this stunning, golden-hued gallery include two sculpture fragments from the Romanesque period, Head of an Apostle, from Thérouanne in northeast France, ca. 1235, and Torso of Christ Crucified, Southern French, ca. 1140. There is also a striking bishop's staff or Crozier, carved from ivory, accented in paint and gold. The crozier, made in Tuscany, dates to the mid-1300's. 

When the bishop's crozier was first gripped in hand, a symbol of high clerical status, the religious doctrines and social concepts of Christendom were beginning to shift to a more "this-worldly" stance. This occurred initially in Italy. We can observe this trend in the striking array of gold-ground paintings, mounted to splendid effect on a simulated stone wall. 

Here we see small devotional scenes, mounted on backgrounds covered with delicate layers of gold leaf, as in Byzantine icons. Many of these works come from predella panels, series of episodes from the life of Christ or the Acts of the Apostles, painted at the base of altarpieces. 

These include paintings by artists whose pioneering contributions have been obscured by High Renaissance titans like Raphael and Michelangelo. Exceptional works are on view, like the small rondel depicting the Prophet Isaiah by Lorenzo Monaco, ca 1410-1415, and the powerful interpretation of the features of Saint Paul, attributed to Lippo Memmi, one of the masters of the distinctive style of painting in Sienna during the 1300's. 

Bernardo Daddi, Madonna and Child with Four Angels, 1348

My favorite among these gold-ground masterpieces is the panel painting by Bernardo Daddi showing the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus, adored by four angels. Daddi, who is believed to have been trained by the great Giotto, was one of the leading Florentine painters of the 1300's. Combining  elements of Giotto's physicality with the gracefulness of Sienese painting, this is a pivotal work in the shift from the medieval conception of art to that of the Renaissance.

The four angels are almost entirely based on the canons of christian imagery. The golden halos of the angels in the foreground obscure the heads and necks of the angels in the rear. There is hardly any differentiation in the faces of the angels. Even the color of the robes match, light-green in front, creamy front. The bodies of the Virgin Mary, likewise, hearken back to medieval ideals, including Byzantine art. But with Daddi's depiction of the faces of the Virgin and Child, an awesome leap forward to a new art form, both human and divine, has been made.

Look closely at the eyes of Mary and Jesus. They focus upon each other, knowingly and tenderly. This is the electrifying moment in the lives of each mother and baby when they both recognize each other. However, there is an added note, a hold-over from Christian iconography. In that the perceptive look of the Christ child dawns the first moment of awareness of his destiny, again both human and divine.

If one is looking to pinpoint the moment of transition from the art of the Middle Ages to that of the Renaissance, a good choice would be Daddi's Madonna and Child, created around 1348. This was in the midst of the Black Death. It was a horrible time to live, but just when such inspirational art is needed most. 

If Bernardo Daddi's Madonna and Child represents the shift from medieval art to the Renaissance, to compare this painting with Kurt Schwitters' Untitled, 1921, would seem to be totally inexplicable. No two works of art, the Italian "primitive" of 1348 and the post World War I Dada collage, could be further apart. Or maybe not.

Kurt Schwitters, Untitled, 1921

Daddi's Madonna and Child is a devotional work, painted with rare color pigments and backed with tooled gold leaf. Kurt Schwitters' Untitled is one of his "Merz" constructions or collages. Merz was a word initially related to bits of refuse, to be used wherever and whenever needed. For Schwitters that became all the time. His Merzbilden (Merz pictures) led in due course to Merz sculptures, Merz buildings and Merz poems. When Schwitters had to flee Nazi persecution, he took his Merz theory of art with him into exile, first to Norway and then to England where he died in 1948.

Schwitters, like Daddi, lived during difficult, seemingly apocalyptic, times. But he endured and so did the motivational spirit impelling him to create art. Merz is the art of survival and of connecting with others. 

When I look at the abstract composition of Schwitters' Untitled from 1921, I see geometric forms and blocks of color coming together in a mutual embrace, in a manner very much like Daddi's Madonna cradling the Infant Jesus in her arms, their faces tenderly touching.

Am I correct in this unorthodox compare/contrast? Yes or no, there are certainly unifying threads - ideas and ideals, aspirations and inspiration -which draw great works of art and great artists together. This bond of unity is discernible in all of Ronald Lauder's treasures on view at the Neue Galerie. One can only be grateful to him and to the curators and staff of the Neue Galerie, itself a work of art.

This is the appropriate moment to highlight the role of Serge Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie saga. A great art curator and an enthusiast for German and Austrian art, Sabarsky played a crucial role in planning the Neue Galerie, but sadly died before it opened.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022) View of Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie

As a way to preserve Sabarsky's memory, the museum's restaurant is named in his honor. Cafe Sabarsky replicates a cafe from Old Vienna with light fixtures designed by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos and upholstery from a 1912 Otto Wagner design. There are gleaming mirrors and a Bosendorfer grand piano which is used for cabaret, chamber and classical music performances. The menu serves outstanding Viennese cuisine and there is an endless supply of gemütlichkeit. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022) Apple strudel at Cafe Sabarsky

I have never traveled to Vienna, nor has my wife, Anne. It does not look like we will be going there any time soon. 

However, to paraphrase a line from the movie, Casablanca (of which Ronald Lauder is a great admirer): "We'll always have the Neue Galerie."

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves. Original Photos: Anne Lloyd, All rights reserved      

Introductory image: Ronald S. Lauder in his home, 2022. Photo: Shahar Azran. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

View of the Neue Galerie entrance. Photo: courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

German Weimar-era art from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

Entrance to The Ronald S. Lauder Collection exhibition. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

Workshop of Pasquier Grenier (Flemish, 1447–1493), The Loggers Tapestry, ca.1460–70, unbleached and polychrome wool. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

Installation view of The Ronald S. Lauder Collection exhibition. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890-1918), Triple Self-Portrait, 1913. Watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

Carl Moll (Austrian, 1861-1945) White Interior, 1905. Oil on Canvas. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

Monumental Head of a Goddess, Greek, Hellenistic, ca. mid-second century BCE. Marble. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York. 

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862–1918) Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,

1907. Oil, gold, and silver on canvas. Neue Galerie New York. Acquired

through the generosity of Ronald S. Lauder, the heirs of the Estates of

Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer, and the Estée Lauder Fund

Early Renaissance paintings from The Ronald S. Lauder Collection exhibition. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York

Bernardo Daddi (Italian, Florence, active ca. 1312/20; died 1348),

Madonna and Child with Four Angels (Central predella panel from the

San Giorgio a Ruballa altarpiece), Florence, 1348, tempera and gold on

panel. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

Kurt Schwitters (German, 1887-1948) Untitled (Yours Treufrischer),1921. Oil, paper, metal, cotton, wool, and button nailed on board. Private Collection. Image courtesy Neue Galerie New York

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022) View of Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2022) Apple Strudel at Cafe Sabarsky.