View of the exhibition Vienna 1900 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986), with the paintings Pallas Athena and Portrait of Emilie Flöge from the Wien Museum
Stadt Wien. This show is still regarded in Vienna
drawing by Klimt was among the one hundred
as a high point among exhibitions devoted to
selected sheets included in the exhibition
the city, and with more than 622,000 visitors, its
Skizzen, Studien, Meisterblätter: Wiener Graphik
59 Traum und Wirklichkeit: Wien 1870–1930, exh. cat., 95th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1985).
attendance figures have never been surpassed.
aus fünf Jahrhunderten,62 and in 2003, his
60 Uhl, “Wien um 1900,” 2006, p. 63.
Assembled here was the crème de la crème in
Secession posters were part of the exhibition
relation to the theme of “Vienna 1900”; both the
Kraftflächen: Wiener Plakatkunst um 1900. The
museums and private collectors from Austria and
following year, the drawing from the estate of
abroad contributed exceptionally high-quality
Arthur Roessler, a standing female nude, was
loan objects. Alongside numerous objects from
exhibited as part of Schiele & Roessler: Der
its own collection, the Historisches Museum
Künstler und sein Förderer,64 and in 2008–09, the
contributed seven of its eight Klimt oil paintings,
Portrait of Emilie Flöge was the central object of
among them, of course, the Portrait of Emilie
the exhibition Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der
Flöge and Pallas Athena, the Auditorium in the
Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte.
63
65
Old Burgtheater, two of his drawings, and the uncensored version of the poster for the first
Aside from a significant number of Klimt objects
Secession exhibition. Emboldened by this
shown in exhibitions organized by the museum in
show’s tremendous success, others organized
the years between 1979 and 1989, this institution
related exhibitions in subsequent years, among
seems to have displayed relatively limited
them Vienne 1880–1938: L’Apocalypse Joyeuse at
interest in these particular holdings. At the same
the Centre Pompidou in Paris,60 and Vienna 1900:
time, a survey of the loan requests and contracts
Art, Architecture & Design at New York’s Museum
for objects by Klimt make it clear that the
of Modern Art.
Klimt collection of the Wien Museum has been
In 1988–89, with the exhibition Emilie Flöge und
well-known and in considerable demand both
Gustav Klimt: Doppelporträt in Ideallandschaft,
nationally and internationally.66
mounted in the Hermesvilla, the Historisches
Depending upon the specific circumstances,
Museum der Stadt Wien once more showed a
the institution known today as the Wien
selection of its Klimt holdings, namely two oil
Museum has always adopted a favorable
paintings (again including, needless to say, the
attitude toward requests for loans of items
Portrait of Emilie Flöge), two posters, and five
from the Klimt collection. It loaned objects to
drawings.61
the Klimt memorial exhibitions that took place
Over the past fifteen years, only individual Klimt
at the Secession as early as 1928 and 1943, for
objects have been shown in exhibitions of the
example. The Klimt exhibitions taking place in the
Wien Museum. In 1996, for example, a single
Albertina in 1962 and 1968 also included works
59
61 Emilie Flöge und Gustav Klimt: Doppelporträt in Ideallandschaft, exh. cat., 112th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1988). 62 Skizzen, Studien, Meisterblätter: Wiener Graphik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, exh. cat., 216th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1996), pp. 65–66. 63 Kraftflächen: Wiener Plakatkunst um 1900, exh. cat., 303th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 2003), pp. 43–47. 64 Schiele & Roessler: Der Künstler und sein Förderer: Kunst und Networking im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, exh. cat. Wien Museum (Ostfildern, 2004), p. 151. 65 Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte, exh. cat. Wien Museum (Stuttgart, 2008). 66 Since not all documents pertaining to loans have been archived over the past decades, we must assume that the following entries are representative of tendencies, while the corrected numbers would have to be somewhat higher.
17