12/9/2007
Monet to Picasso
Albertina, Wien
The Batliner Collection
The Batliner Collection
The exhibition “Monet to Picasso” offers an informative overview of one of the most
exciting chapters in the history of art: the turn from figural to abstract art, the progressive
deconstruction of traditional picture forms. In approximately 250 artworks – paintings,
drawings, prints and sculptures – the development of the most important, and one could
well say revolutionary, stylistic epochs of the last hundred years can be traced in the
continual progression from Impressionism to modernism. The fortunate combination of
the Batliner Collection and the Forberg Collection with the Albertina’s inventory has
brought together work groups by pioneering artists, making it possible to provide a
comprehensive look at the many “isms” of the modern era. At the centre of this
presentation is the Batliner Collection, which was transferred to the Albertina by the
Herbert and Rita Batliner Foundation in May 2007.
Impressionism and “Der Blaue Reiter”
The point of departure is French Impressionism, with exceptional late works by Monet
(“Water Lily Pond”) and Degas (“Two Dancers”) and Post-Impressionism, primarily
represented by artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and Cézanne, the latter with his favourite
themes such as the Arc Valley and the Sainte-Victoire Mountains or the bathers. The
show continues with the Nabis group with Bonnard and Vuillard, whose predilection for
ornamental composition in surfaces is manifested most of all in lithographs. The “wild”,
intensely colourful works by Matisse, Vlaminck and Derain exemplify the Fauvist
movement, while the Signac’s Pointillist approach represents Neo-Impressionism.
Orphism is presented in key works by Delaunay and Kupka, followed by the German
artists of Der Blaue Reiter, Marc, Macke and the early Kandinsky, who were decisively
influenced by this “ism”.
Cubism and Russian avant-garde
An important step on the path to abstraction is represented by Cubism, which is brilliantly
represented by Braque and Picasso. Picasso’s late work, which played a uniquely
significant role in shaping the art of the 20th century, forms a further highpoint of the
exhibition. Alienation and mystification are reflected in the Surrealist paintings of Miró,
Klee, Arp, Magritte and Delvaux. An independent chapter of no small significance is
represented by the Russian avant-garde with Lissitzky and Malevich. The show concludes
with impressive examples of Abstract Expressionism, including Appel, Rothko and
Newman, and the New Realism of Yves Klein.
THE BATLINER COLLECTION
Herbert and Rita Batliner started collecting art almost 50 years ago. Their close friendship
with Ernst Beyeler influenced them from the very start to base a specific part of their
collection on French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting. Meanwhile, the couple
concentrated from the beginning also on works by Pablo Picasso; more than forty of them
are in the Batliner Collection today, among them ten paintings, as well as many drawings
and unique one-off ceramic works.
Thanks to his extensive travelling, the long-time president of Liechtenstein’s Constitutional
Court and managing partner of a large law firm in Vaduz came to know and love the
Russian avant-garde. The couple were particularly fascinated by the collections of
Russian avant-garde art at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Guggenheim
Museum/New York, the Ludwig Museum/Cologne, and the Russian Museum/St.
Petersburg. Over the years, they consistently and with great connoisseurship built up their
own collection of Russian avant-garde art of the period between 1905 and 1935. Marc
Chagall plays a central role here, but the collection is also remarkable particularly for
groups of works by Natalia Goncharova and Popova, by Michael Larionov, and a major
work by Kasimir Malevich, which he painted immediately after his release from prison
during the Stalin era as a remembrance and picture of his resistance against his arrest.
The legacy of a collector couple
The collection, which has grown over the course of many decades, enjoys the highest
esteem among connoisseurs and museums. Herbert and Rita Batliner have been long
noted for loaning their works; hardly any exhibition of Picasso, Monet, Modigliani or
Giacometti is put on without loans from the Batliner Collection.
The Batliners have been forging a plan for several years of maintaining this great private
collection as an integral whole and transferring it in its totality as a legacy to a museum.
Believing that every substantial art collection is just as unique and worthy of preservation
as a single major work of art, Herbert and Rita Batliner have resolved to endow the
collection to the general public during their lifetime. As much as the collectors “rejoiced in”
and “felt the intellectual challenge” of the hundreds of paintings, pastels, gouaches and
sculptures through the decades, they now desire the tangible and intellectual enrichment
of making their collection accessible to a wide public.
The Batliner Collection in the Albertina
To safeguard the indivisibility of this great private collection and its fundamental
perpetuity, Herbert and Rita Batliner have incorporated their works of art into a foundation:
the Herbert and Rita Batliner Art Foundation. This is the provider of the permanent loan
now being transferred to the Albertina, similar to the Austrian Ludwig Foundation, which
also brought works acquired over 25 years as the Foundation’s inalienable property into
the collection of the Albertina (and also of the MUMOK).
“That the couple have now resolved as donors to establish their art foundation
permanently and in its integral totality in the Austrian capital Vienna deserves our most
heartfelt thanks. This is not only another upgrading of the Albertina, but also an
inestimable gain for the entire art and culture world in Austria.” (Wilhelm Molterer,
Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister of the Republic of Austria)
Catalogue Monet to Picasso. The Batliner Collection
Verlag Dr. Imhof, 420 pages, 300 colour reproductions, €
29,- Editions in German and English. Available at the
ALBERTINA Shop, shop@albertina.at, and in bookshops
Press Verena Dahlitz (Head)
Tel +43 (01) 534 83 - 510, Fax +43 (01) 534 83 - 199 v.dahlitz@albertina.at
Press conference 13 September 2007, 10 a.m.
Opening 13. September 2007, 6:30 p.m.
Albertina
Albertinaplatz 1 A- 1010 Wien
Opening hours daily 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wed. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Admission regular € 9,50; reduced € 8,00/7,00