The Scream

"The Scream" Edvard Munch (1895)

“Munch and Expressionism,” the latest exhibit at the Neue Galerie, explores how the Norwegian Evard Munch influenced his German and Austrian contemporaries and German Expressionism. Included in the show are more than 80 paintings and works on paper by Munch and other artists like Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Egon Schiele. This mix allows viewers to see shared themes of mortality, alienation, and anxiety and for Munch’s work to stand out. It's also refreshing to see a woman artist, Gabriele Munter, included; her painting “The Blue Gable” (1911) was one of my favourites in the show.

An exhibit of Munch wouldn’t be complete without his most famous work, The Scream, an iconic symbol of modern angst. Here the painting gets its own room, dark and cozy. Munch created four versions of “The Scream” yet the one on display, the 1895 version done in pastels, may be the most interesting. It’s the only one to have remained out of a museum and in private hands. It’s also the one that includes a poem painted on the frame by the artist that describes the origin of the work:

“I was walking along the road with two Friends / the Sun was setting – The Sky turned a bloody red / And I felt a whiff of Melancholy – I stood / Still, deathly tired – over the blue-black / Fjord and City hung Blood and Tongues of Fire / My Friends walked on – I remained behind / – shivering with Anxiety – I felt the great Scream in Nature – EM.”

 “The Scream” has been reproduced so many times that it’s become kitsch yet it’s striking to see in person, brighter than any postcard or poster. The strong strokes of colour have a feeling of urgency, as if the artist dashed off the work in a hurry. The oppressive orange sky, the seemingly endless bridge above the swirling blue water below, and the alien-like features of the figure in the forefront grab your attention, leaving you with a sense of unease.

“Munch and Expressionism” is at the Neue Galerie until June 13, 2016.

Egon Schiele: Portraits

"Reclining Woman with Green Stockings" Egon Schiele (1917)

The Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was something of a boy genius and rebel. At the age of 16 he was accepted into Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts. At 17 he counted Gustave Klimt as a mentor and at 18 had his work included in a public exhibition. At 19 he and some friends dropped out of school to found the New Art Group and by 21 had his first solo exhibit. He would die young, leaving behind a body of work that would make him one of the most important European artists of the early 20th century.

“Egon Schiele: Portraits” is a compelling exhibit at the Neue Galerie that includes 125 of his drawings and paintings. Although often shocking, sometimes grotesque, and rarely beautiful, you can’t help but be captivated by them.

"Erich Lederer in Front of a Window, Gyoer, Hungary" Egon Schiele (1912)

The portraits in the front of the show are of a variety of family members and acquaintances. There’s the Klimt-influenced portrait of his sister, Gertie (there were rumours about an incestuous relationship between the two siblings); the portraits of the Lederer family, including multiple ones of the son, Erich, looking like a follower of Oscar Wilde (Schiele caused some trouble when it was discovered that he was introducing Erich to his female models); and a portrait of gynaecologist Dr. Erwin von Graff that is absolutely terrifying with his long arms covered in what looks like a combination of blood and burns.

Some of Schiele’s favourite subjects were children who he would invite into his studio to pose for him. In 1912 he was arrested and accused of kidnapping and raping a minor. In the end he was only charged with offences against morality (for having pornographic material on display for minors to see) and spent 24 days in prison. Afterwards, Schiele primarily stuck to painting adults. The exhibit includes a small room dedicated to this event with sketches Schiele completed while in prison.

"Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Standing (Edith Schiele in Striped Dress)" Egon Schiele (1915)

In the final gallery two of Schiele’s obsessions, women and himself, come together. Here the visitor is greeted with numerous images of women in various states of undress and sexual arousal (sometimes with Schiele joining in). Knickers and stockings of all colours play an important role. Sometimes the women look at the viewer; other times their faces are hidden among their clothes or covered by their hair. A few are of his longtime partner, Wally, while others are nameless. A nearby full-length painting of his wife, Edith, stands in stark contrast, fully dressed and while colourful a bit dull in comparison.

"Self-portrait with arm twisted above head" Egon Schiele (1910)

And then there are the self-portraits: Schiele pouting and preening, his body twisted, emaciated, sometimes dressed, sometimes not, looking like an Austrian Sid Vicious. A few have religious connotations including one that comes right out and announces that it’s Schiele as St. Sebastian pierced through with arrows. Seen collectively, it's hard not to think of Schiele as a narcissist (or maybe he was just young).

One of his later paintings from 1918 gives a clue that the artist was looking forward to starting a new chapter in his life. “The Family (Squatting Couple)” depicts a father and a mother, naked, with a baby at their feet. Schiele posed for the figure of the father while a model stood in for a pregnant Edith. Yet this imagined scene of Schiele’s future was not to be. Edith died while she was six-months pregnant, a victim of the Spanish Flu epidemic. Schiele followed her just three days later. He was 28.

"Self-Portrait with Peacock Waistcoat, Standing" Egon Schiele (1911)

One can only speculate what direction his art would have taken had he lived and how he would have fared a few decades later as a middle-aged man living under Nazi rule. Schiele's early death means he will forever be the young artist who left behind a trove of work that continues to shock and fascinate a hundred years later.

"Egon Schiele: Portraits" is at the Neue Galerie through January 11, 2015. For more information, visit here. 

Art Roundup

"Woman Viewed from Behind" Edgar Degas (ca. 1879-1885)

This fall has been filled with loads of art from exhibits to performances to screenings. As much as I tried, I fell behind in trying to write reviews of everything so before the season is officially over, here’s a short wrap-up of some of the things I saw.

In the summer of 1937, an art exhibit was held in Munich comprised of 650 pieces of art deemed degenerate by the Nazi Party because it “insulted German feeling” among other things. At the same time another show, “The Great German Art Exhibition,” showcased Nazi-approved art. You can guess which one had the highest attendance: more than 1 million people saw the degenerate show in its first six weeks. In September, I caught the last day of a fascinating exhibit at the Neue Galerie, “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937,” which compared 80 works from both exhibits. Seen side by side, there’s no argument that the “degenerate” art was far superior; including works by Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, it was a collection of some of the masters of modern art. Perhaps most striking of all in the exhibit was a room with empty frames symbolizing the art that was lost, most likely destroyed by the Nazis. The exhibition catalogue can be found here.

The Conformist (1970)

Film Forum showed a restored, director-approved version of Bernardo Bertolucci’s masterpiece The Conformist (1970). Based on Alberto Moravia’s novel, the story takes place in 1930s France and Italy where Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) joins the Italian Fascist party and finds himself tasked with the assassination of one of his old college professors. The film cuts between the present and the past, showing how an attempted sexual assault and presumed murder during Marcello's isolated childhood caused him to grow up craving a normal life. There are numerous great scenes including the climatic encounter in the woods, which would later influence The Godfather, beautifully shot by Vittorio Storaro who incorporated Art Deco design and Fascist-era architecture with stunning effect. Available here.

For the 75th anniversary of the book about the little girl who lived in "an old house in Paris that was covered with vines,” the New York Historical Society celebrated with “Madeline in New York: The Art of Ludwig Bemelmans,” which showcased the Madeline books and their creator, Ludwig Bemelmans, whose own story seems invented. Abandoned by his father as a child, Bemelmans grew up in Germany and Austria, and worked at his uncle’s hotel before an incident involving a shooting led to his being sent to America. It was here in New York that he began to write the tale of Madeline. The exhibit was wonderful, filled with drawings from the Madeline books as well as ones from the Ritz Hotel (where he once worked) and panels from the Paris restaurant he owned. A selection of books and nearby sofa where one was encouraged to sit and read was an added bonus. The exhibit can currently be seen at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts through February 22, 2015. For more info, visit here.

Anna May Wong's Certificate of Identity, August 18, 1924, National Archives at San Francisco.

Another, more serious exhibit I saw at the Historical Society was “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion,” which looks at the history of trade between the US and China, and the plight of Chinese immigrants who, thanks to the Chinese Exclusion Act, were not legally allowed to immigrate to the US until 1943. From the beginning of the tea trade in the 18th century to the building of the railroads in the 19th to their successful fight to become citizens in the 20th, Chinese Americans have had an impact on this country. The exhibit includes items from the gold rush (a large reason for Chinese immigration in the 19th century), multiple oral histories, and a recreation of barracks at Angel Island near San Francisco where Chinese immigrants were held while their immigration status was confirmed or denied. Also included is screen star Anna May Wong’s Certificate of Identity, a card that all Chinese, no matter how famous, were required to carry at all times. The exhibit runs through April 19, 2015. For more info, visit here.

I will do almost anything to see a performance by the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) and so I made sure to attend the opening night of the Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center where Morris debuted a new work, Words, set to the music of Mendelssohn and specially commissioned for the event. One of four groups performing that evening, the MMDG was the last and best. With all 16 dancers dressed in simple outfits by Maile Okamura, their movements, as with so many of Morris’ work, led you down one path only to surprise you with a sudden twist or turn. A plain cloth carried by two dancers acted as a screen behind which dancers could enter and exit. It was in short, a complete joy to watch. For more about the MMDG, visit their site here.

Rossy de la Palma and Rossy de la Palma in Traveling Lady

Journalist Nellie Bly set out in 1889 to beat the around the world in 80 days record of Jules Verne’s novel; she came in at 72 and was a worldwide news sensation. Jessica Mitrani’s new multimedia piece, Traveling Lady, which premiered at the FIAF Fall Festival, is inspired by Bly and looks at feminine stereotypes via music, film, and well, dancing dresses. At the center of the piece is Pedro Almodovar muse Rossy de la Palma whose larger-than-life presence on stage and in some of the film clips made the show worth seeing.

Powerhouse, a play by Josh Luxenberg and the Sinking Ship Ensemble, tells the story of the eccentric composer Raymond Scott who in the 1930s attempted to reinvent Swing music with his band the Raymond Scott Quintette and who spent his life inventing countless electronic musical gadgets. Scott would likely be forgotten today if it were not for his music catalogue that he sold to Warner Brothers who in turn used many of the pieces for their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons including the highly recognized “Powerhouse,” which is often used for assembly line scenes. The play, which includes musical performances, dance, and puppetry (some of the funniest scenes in the show), is more than just your run-of-the-mill story of a famous person's life—it shows the madness that is at the heart of creativity. 

A Neue Saturday

"Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" Gustav Klimt (1907)

One Saturday this summer I met up with a friend on the Upper East Side to go to an event only to discover that it was happening on a different day (I must learn to double check these things). What to do? With a free afternoon on our hands, we decided to head over to the Neue Galerie.

I quite like the Neue. The building is lovely, their collection small but excellent, and the special exhibits are always interesting. Having a café that serves divine cakes doesn't hurt either.

This year marks the 150^th birthday of Gustav Klimt so the museum was celebrating with an exhibit of related photographs and drawings in addition to the paintings from their permanent collection including its star, Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). No reproduction in a book or poster can do justice to the painting's amazing golds.

"Anna with Mirror" Heinrich Kuehn (1902)

Yet it was an exhibit on another floor that really captured my attention. “Heinrich Kuehn and His American Circle: Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen” looked at the work of Austrian photography pioneer Heinrich Kuehn (1866-1944) and his friendship with the leading American photographers. Kuehn believed early on that photography was an art form and at the turn of the century became an influential member of the Pictorialist movement that emphasized beauty over realism in photography.

Alfred Stieglitz would become Kuehn’s advocate and in 1906 exhibited Kuehn's work at his New York Gallery (a section of which was recreated at the Neue). The two would correspond for more than 30 years and along with Edward Steichen explore new photography techniques. Yet Kuehn never achieved the status that the American photographers did. 

The photographs in the exhibit were dreamlike and striking. I was particularly taken by the ones printed with the gum-bichromate process on textured paper, which gave them the look of a painting. Along with Tyrolean landscapes were many images of his four children and their nanny, Mary Warner, who would often pose for him and is believed to have become Kuehn's companion after the death of his wife.

"Still-life with Violets" Heinrich Kuehn (ca. 1908)

But the most stunning photographs were to be found in a short film screened in one of the rooms. Using autochrome, an early form of colour photography, Kuehn managed to capture striking colour images like this bunch of violets. They were incredibly beautiful. Unfortunately, these images are now so fragile they can no longer be displayed.

Afterwards we browsed the gift shop and enjoyed a delicious lunch at Café Sabarsky. I had Spätzle and Früchte Eistee (fruit ice tea) and somehow managed to keep away from the cakes for once. All in all, not bad for a Plan B.

To find out more about the Neue Galerie, visit their website here.

Life is a Cabaret

“Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber” Otto Dix (1925)

An Otto Dix painting both repulses and fascinates at the same time. I learned this first hand Saturday afternoon while looking at works by the German Expressionist currently on display at the Neue Galerie New York.

With more than 100 works to view, I wandered from horrific scenes of World War I battlefields (Dix served in the German Army and was at the Battle of the Somme) to portraits from the Weimar Republic—performers, whores, lawyers, doctors—none of whom appear more “normal” than the other (according to the portrait, Dr. Heinrich Stadelmann would be right at home in a Tim Burton film).

One of my favourites was “Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber.” A notorious dancer and actress, Berber flaunted her bisexuality and drug abuse before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 29 (a real life Sally Bowles). The vivid reds of the painting along with her exaggerated makeup gives her a vampiric quality and symbolizes the harshness of her lifestyle and the time.

Another favourite was a portrait of a mother and child. At first, it looked innocent enough. That was until I noticed that the baby’s feet, wrapped in cloth, seemed curiously long and twisted.

The Neue Galerie, home to a beautiful collection of 20th century Austrian and German art, is one of the loveliest museums in the city. Built in 1914, the former home of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III includes many lovely details like a marble and wrought iron twisting staircase and domed skylight.  

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte with a Wiener Mélange. Photo by Michele.

On the first floor is the Café Sabarsky, modeled on the famed coffee houses of Vienna. So, of course, I had to order a slice of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (chocolate cake with cherries) with a Wiener Mélange (espresso with steamed milk). Absolutely delicious.

The Otto Dix exhibit runs through August 30.