Saturday, October 18, 2025

Over 100 Works of Austrian Expressionism to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

 24 works from this gift will be on view beginning November 23, 2025

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced a gift of more than 130 works of Austrian Expressionism from the family of Otto Kallir, including the first paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Richard Gerstl to enter the collection. Transferred to LACMA over several years, the donation broadly surveys Austrian Expressionism from its roots at the turn of the 20th century to the 1920s with paintings, more than 100 drawings, prints, and posters, and a selection of works by artist-designers who were affiliated with the Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903. In addition to the paintings by Klimt, Schiele, and Gerstl, the donation includes works by Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky and by the German artists Lovis Corinth and Käthe Kollwitz.

 A venerable art dealer active in Vienna from the early 1920s, Otto Kallir (1894-1978) emigrated in 1938 after the National Socialist annexation of Austria. Arriving in New York in 1939, he established the Galerie St. Etienne, which continued to advance the work and legacy of Austrian Expressionists for 80 years. Many of the works in the gift were brought by Kallir from Vienna when he emigrated. Following his death in 1978, the gallery was run for 40 years by his granddaughter Jane Kallir, together with his business partner Hildegard Bachert. The Galerie St. Etienne closed in 2020, and Jane Kallir, a recognized scholar of Austrian modernism, has established The Kallir Research Institute, which promotes critical research on Austrian and German Expressionism

 A selection of 24 works from this gift will be on view beginning November 23, 2025. Curated by Timothy O. Benson, Helgard Field Curator of the Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Austrian Expressionism and Otto Kallir will be presented in the Modern Art Galleries on BCAM, Level 3, through May 31, 2026. “

Gustav Klimt (1862-1919) has long been considered a fountainhead of Austrian Expressionism by virtue of his radical approach to figuration and his lasting influence over other members of the Austrian avant-garde, among them, the younger Egon Schiele (1890-1918). The Kallir gift offers the opportunity to track Klimt’s groundbreaking engagement with the human form across the two final and defining decades of his oeuvre with eight drawings and a painting. 



 Gustav Klimt, Woman with Fur Collar, 1897, gift of Kallir Family photos courtesy Kallir Research Institute, New York 

The shimmering and intimate Woman with the Fur Collar (1897), puts the artist’s Symbolist impulse on ample display, and bears witness to the beginning of an artistic revolution in the Austro-Hungarian capital with Klimt’s co-founding of the Vienna Secession the same year. 

The core of the gift are the 27 works by Schiele, two major landscape paintings of 1913 and 19 works on paper including 14 unflinching studies of the human figure, the most celebrated aspect of his oeuvre.

 


Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Brown Background, 1912, gift of Kallir Family; photos courtesy Kallir Research Institute, New York 

The four Schiele self-portraits, created in a span of six years, evidence the pace of Schiele’s unprecedented stylistic development, culminating in the outstanding and deeply probing Self-Portrait with Brown Background (1912), which was executed at the height of his ill-fated romance with Wally Neuzil. 

Egon Schiele, Sawmill, 1913, Kallir Family Collection, promised gift to Los Angeles County Museum of Art;  photos courtesy Kallir Research Institute, New York 



Egon Schiele The Bridge: 1913;

The two Schiele landscape paintings are remarkable not only for their vigor, but also for marking turning points in Kallir’s life. The Bridge was shown in 1923 at the first posthumous Schiele exhibition organized by Kallir in his Neue Galerie in Vienna, and Kallir brought it and Sawmill with him when he fled Nazi-occupied Austria for New York. 

Coming of age during the tumultuous last decade of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kallir began professionally championing the legacy of Schiele and Klimt soon after their passing in 1918. In the case of the tragically short-lived Richard Gerstl (1883– 1908), Kallir’s efforts around 1931 directly led to the recuperation of the little-known artist’s estate and its introduction to the Viennese public via Gerstl’s first posthumous exhibition the same year. 

Much sought-after but extremely rare are the five works by Gerstl in the gift, including the crystalline and piercing Self-Portrait, thought to have been executed a mere five weeks before the artist ended his life at the age of 25. 

The enigmatic work of Bohemian artist Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) has recently experienced a resurgence of interest; the gift of 10 works complements the museum’s two drawings and 46 prints by him, making possible a more comprehensive presentation of his work. The first Austrian Expressionist to attain international renown, 

Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) led an itinerant life on a pan-European scale. One of his earliest travels to Italy is documented in the gift by two lively, veduta-like seascapes from 1913, both formerly owned by his lover Alma MahlerWerfel, the widow of the illustrious composer and conductor Gustav Mahler and, in Page 4 the 1940s, a prominent Los Angeles émigré. Two later Kokoschka drawings of women attest to the innovative potential of drawing as a modernist medium, prefiguring the gestural and compositional vitality of Willem de Kooning. 

Similar to Kokoschka, Kallir did not limit himself to the Austrian art scene and quickly became a proponent of international, especially German, art. During his lifetime, Kallir devoted 15 solo exhibitions to Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), and the gift brings two important preparatory charcoal drawings, which provide clues about the creative process behind two corresponding, iconic prints already in the Rifkind Center’s collection. 

The gift also creates an opportunity to narrate the full extent of the prominent Berlin Secessionist Lovis Corinth’s (1858-1925) activities as a prolific draughtsman and printmaker via a landscape painting, 42 works on paper, and two sketchbooks. The depth of Austrian-German interactions in the artistic sphere is further exemplified by two early portraits by the Viennese-born Marie-Louise Motesiczky (1906-1996), who was a student of Max Beckmann in Frankfurt in the 1920s. 



Dorotheum`s Old Masters auction on 23 October 2025

 Dorotheum`s Old Masters auction on 23 October 2025 features an important selection of 17th century Spanish still life paintings, landscapes, capricci and vedute, as well as religious paintings and portraiture.


Francisco de Goya (1746–1828), Portrait of The Young Duke of Alba, oil on canvas, 52.5 x 42.7 cm, estimate €400,000 – 600,000

One of the highlights of the sale is a portrait by Francisco de Goya of The Young Duke of Alba, from one of Spain’s leading noble families, painted in c.1783. This portrait by the great Spanish master demonstrates his mastery of the genre which is evident in his naturalistic style and his nuanced observation of character. It is the portrayal of the personality and the realistic presence of the sitter displayed in this painting that marks the difference between traditional aristocratic portraiture and a new sense of psychological realism that is associated with Goya’s work. The colour of the silk coat, a mixture of brown and violet, also known as “flea colour” was fashionable at the time. Use of the colour in depictions of courtly dress signals the social prestige and sophisticated taste of the sitter. (estimate €400,000 – 600,000).


Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691–1765), An offering to Aesculapius on the Isola Tiberina, Rome, oil on canvas, 102.5 x 92.5 cm, estimate €300,000 – 400,000

Giovanni Paolo Panini was one of the most celebrated painters in 18th century Rome. His depiction of the Isola Tiberina was commissioned as a tribute to Aesculapius, the god of medicine and healing, by the British physician and art collector, Dr Richard Mead. He was a pioneer in the eradication of contagious diseases and was so renowned as a healer that he listed Queen Anne, and King George II as well as the great physicist, Sir Isaac Newton and the artist Antoine Watteau amongst his patients. It would be hard to find a more fitting patron for Panini’s tribute to the god Aesculapius. According to classical tradition, as plague gripped Rome, a sacred serpent, symbol of the healing deity, came ashore on the Isola Tiberina and ended the plague. The painting portrays the founding of the sanctuary of Aesculapius on the Isola Tiberina and depicts the statue of the god presiding over worshippers offering their devotions. It is both a visual hymn to the divine origins of medicine and a reflection of Mead’s enlightened ideals. It unites science, mythology and art in a radiant vision of ancient Rome. (est: €300,000 – 400,000).  

The significant selection of 17th century Spanish still lifes included in this sale is also worthy of mention. These Spanish works have an additional characteristic which sets them apart from their Dutch and Italian counterparts. With their muted colours, restrained composition and lighting effects, they reveal a certain austerity, the roots of which lie in the piety of the Counter-Reformation. Works of particular note include Mirabelle plums and cherries in porcelain dishes by a basket of yellow pomegranates by an as yet unidentified artist (estimate on request), and the Fruit on pewter plates on a multi-tiered sideboard by Juan de Espinosa (€80,000 – 120,000).

A work Jan Brueghel II entitled Tazza with a garland of flowers, a jewellery box, a pocket watch and flowers in a glass vase is an eloquent example of the allegorical nature of Flemish still life painting. It includes a pocket watch representing the theme of vanitas or the intransience of human existence. A wreath of flowers and a necklace of pearls are symbols of feminine virtue, and the glass vase is a reminder of the fragility of life (€120,000 – 180,000). 



Further notable works from northern Europe include an atmospheric night scene by Jan Brueghel I entitled Aeneas and Anchises fleeing the burning Troy (€120,000 – 180,000), and other paintings by Jan Steen and Jan van Goyen.



Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Hansl’s first outing (Homecoming children), 1858, oil on panel, 63 x 79 cm, estimate €400,000 – 600,000

One of the highlights of the auction of 19th Century Paintings on 22 October 2025, is a masterpiece by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. It was owned by Jewish entrepreneur Grete Klein, who fled Austria with her family in 1938 (see press release). Having been forcibly confiscated from the Klein family by the Nazi regime, the painting was intended for the infamous but never realised ‘Führer Museum’. The work was hidden in the salt mines of Aussee before being recovered by the US army’s ‘Monuments Men’ at the end of the war. It has since been in the custodianship of the Federal Republic of Germany. The painting has recently been restituted to its owners. This action-packed, multi-figure genre scene entitled Hansl's first outing, painted by Austria's most celebrated Biedermeier artist captivates the viewer with its unique composition and bright directional lighting (€400,000 – 600,000).

Monday, October 13, 2025

Snippets: Chagall, Heckel

 


CHAGALL

From 11 October 2025 to 8 February 2026, Chagall: Witness of His Time will offer visitors an immersive journey into the artist’s poetic and visionary world. Through a rich and emotionally powerful display, the exhibition explores the key themes that shaped Chagall’s life and work.

This remarkable journey reveals how Marc Chagall (Vitebsk, 1887 – Saint-Paul de Vence, 1985) – renowned worldwide for his floating figures and dreamlike, vividly coloured compositions – preserved the memory of his homeland, its traditions, and the people and places he held dear, while continuously projecting them toward new expressive horizons.

Through 200 works, including paintings, drawings, and engravings, and two immersive rooms presenting some of Chagall’s monumental creations within a captivating, multisensory setting, the exhibition reveals the profound humanity at the core of his art. A multifaceted figure, Chagall was both a visionary and a witness of his time, a poet of beauty and a custodian of memory. Fragmented faces, multiplying profiles, mirrored portraits: through the recurring theme of the double, he reveals his extraordinary ability to capture the duality of human existence. Flying lovers, talking animals, and explosive bouquets transcend the visible world to become universal metaphors. Through his poetic gaze, Chagall transforms personal experience into shared reflection, showing how beneath the apparent simplicity of his creations lie themes that resonate deeply: identity, exile, spirituality, and the joy of life.

In an age marked by fragmentation, Chagall reminds us that art can serve as a bridge between distant worlds, a synthesis of seemingly irreconcilable traditions and a faithful reflection of humanity’s deepest aspirations and contradictions. His work celebrates an emotional truth that gives form to the most intimate dimensions of the soul, lifting it toward a beauty capable of revealing, even amid the darkest moments of history, glimmers of peace and understanding.

Exhibition organized by Fondazione Ferrara Arte and Arthemisia

Curated by Paul Schneiter and Francesca Villanti

Marc Chagall, La sposa dai due volti, 1927. Collezione privata. © Chagall ®, by SIAE 2025

HECKEll

Neue Galerie New York is pleased to announce an important monographic exhibition on the German Expressionist artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970), opening October 9, 2025. This presentation will include nearly 40 works ranging in date from 1905 to 1920, from his student years through his experience behind the frontlines as a medical orderly during World War I. The show, on view through January 12, 2026, highlights major works in the museum’s collection alongside notable loans from the Harvard Art Museums, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, among others.

The first presentation of Heckel’s work in the United States was held in New York just over a century ago in 1923 at the Anderson Galleries. At the time, German American art historian and curator, William R. Valentiner, described Heckel’s nature as “tender and lyrical” while praising his “romantic imagination” and the “other-worldly beauty” of his landscapes. Although he had trained as an architect at Dresden’s Technische Hochschule (Technical College), Heckel proved to be a strong and expressive painter and was equally innovative as a printmaker. This exhibition celebrates his accomplishments in both fields and confirms his talent as a figurative and landscape artist.

Heckel was a founding member of the Brücke (Bridge) Artists’ Group established in Dresden in June 1905 and he played a key role in the group’s success. As chief organizer of their exhibitions from 1905 he was instrumental in the Brücke’s first museum show in 1907 held at the Folkwang Museum in 1907, and he remained a vital figure in the group until it disbanded in 1913.

The raucous colors and loose and expressive brushstrokes that defined his earliest works with the Brücke, especially his bucolic outdoor scenes, such as the ebullient Bathers in a Pond (1909), and his intimate studio scenes like the early self-portrait entitled Seated Man (1909), are replaced by a darker palette and spikey brushstrokes after Heckel moved to Berlin in December 1911 to join his other Brücke colleagues. The most significant work in the exhibition is the triptych, To the Convalescent Woman (1912-13), which centers on his future wife, the dancer Siddi Riha. The couple met in December 1910, and she became his muse, modeling for many of his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures. Siddi is featured in several other works in the show, including the 1913 canvas Siblings, where she is shown alongside her younger brother. Both paintings are recognized as masterpieces of the late Brücke style.

Another special aspect of the presentation will be a fulsome display of Heckel’s prints. Woodcut in particular reached a pinnacle in the early sixteenth century when German artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach made their mark; Brücke artists revitalized the technique and made noteworthy contributions to modernism through their efforts in printmaking, which helped to disseminate their radical style. Heckel remained dedicated to pursuing printmaking throughout his long career, and he made groundbreaking strides in his search for a new and unpolished pictorial language. Some of his woodcuts were printed in extremely limited quantities. This show offers the chance to view these rare items alongside paintings and drawings by the artist to better appreciate the crucial dialogue that exists between these media.


Exhibition Catalogue



A fully illustrated catalogue, published by Neue Galerie New York and Prestel, accompanies the exhibition. The texts presented in this lavishly illustrated monograph focus on Heckel’s early career and cover topics ranging from his involvement with Die Brücke; the works he created during his idyllic summers in the Friesian beach resort of Dangast; his military service during World War I; and his bold and expressive woodcuts. Emphasis is placed on his portrait and landscape paintings and his vibrant pictures of bathers, which merge both genres.


Erich Heckel
(1883-1970)
To the Convalescent Woman
, 1912-13
Oil on canvas
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum
Emdmée Busch Greenough Fund
© 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany