Neue Galerie, January 2023
Neue Galerie New York is a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design, displayed on two exhibition floors. The collection features art from Vienna circa 1900, exploring the special relationship that existed between the fine arts (of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl, and Alfred Kubin) and the decorative arts (created at the Wiener Werkstätte by such well-known figures as Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and Dagobert Peche, and by such celebrated architects as Adolf Loos, Joseph Urban, and Otto Wagner).
The German art collection represents various movements of the early twentieth century: the Blaue Reiter and its circle (Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter); the Brücke (Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Hermann Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff); the Bauhaus (Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer); the Neue Sachlichkeit (Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad); as well as applied arts from the German Werkbund (Peter Behrens) and the Bauhaus (Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Wilhelm Wagenfeld).
Special temporary exhibitions rotate in the third floor galleries throughout the year.
The Story Behind the Gallery
Started by two friends who bonded over their mutual love for the Germanic Art of the early 20th century.
Special Temporary Exhibition: THE RONALD S. LAUDER COLLECTION
November 11, 2022 - February 13, 2023
The Founder’s private art collection is exhibited for a limited time, displayed the way it stands in his own house. A rare glimpse to the beloved treasures of a true art connoisseur, including: masterworks of Greek and Roman sculpture, Italian thirteenth and fourteenth century gold-ground paintings, objects for a Kunstkammer, and Austrian and German painting, sculpture and decorative arts from the early twentieth century.
Woman in Gold
GUSTAV KLIMT (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
‘Woman in Gold’ is Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, I, 1907, a wealthy Austrian society woman, hostess of a renowned Viennese salon, art patron, and philanthropist (August 9, 1881–January 24, 1925). Her famous portraits by Klimt are historical witnesses to the significance of Jewish patronage during the Golden Era of fin-de-siècle Vienna. In 1938, following the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, this painting along with four more Klimt paintings belonging to the family passed in Nazi hands. It took a lot of twists and turns - made into the Woman in Gold movie with Helen Mirren - for the final restitution of all five Klimt paintings to the family.
As we stood in front of Adele’s portrait, we marveled at how art can travel through time telling the stories of people painted, eras gone by, of wars and justice. I could not help but think of the Greek Nobel poet laureate, Yiorgos Seferis, and some of his thoughts standing in front of a circle of ancient Greek statues (loosely translated):
“All of us, who embarked on this pilgrimage,
studied the broken statues, forgot ourselves, and said, that life does not get lost that easily
that death has unexplored paths and its own justice;
that when we all die standing,
reconciled with the rocks and marble
united with the cruelty and the weakness,
the old dead escaped from the circle and came back to life
and smile in the eerie silence”
Works by Klimt courtesy of the Neue Galerie
Café Sabarsky
We also enjoyed the trip to old Vienna in the galery’s cafe:
Sachertorte und heiße Schokolade
