17/4/2000
Michelangelo to Picasso
Frick Collection, New York
Master Drawings from the Collection of the Albertina, Vienna
This spring, visitors
to The Frick
Collection will have
the opportunity to
view works
representing five
hundred years of
the highest
achievement in the
draftsman's art by
such masters as
Dürer, Leonardo,
Michelangelo,
Raphael, Rubens,
Rembrandt, van
Gogh, Klimt,
Picasso, Chagall,
Schiele, and
Pollock. The Frick Collection is the only American
venue for the special exhibition, Michelangelo to
Picasso: Master Drawings from the Collection of
the Albertina, Vienna, which opens on April 18 and
remains on view through June 18, 2000. The
Graphische Sammlung Albertina (Graphic Art
Collection Albertina) is one of Europe's greatest
repositories of works on paper. This exhibition
features forty-five master drawings and
watercolors, many of which have never left Austria
or are only very rarely on view. The works selected
are not only of the highest quality, but are
representative of several different eras of collecting
at the institution - from the Age of Enlightenment
to the present day.
These drawings and watercolors were selected by
Dr. Konrad Oberhuber, former Director of the
Albertina, Vienna, and Dr. Barbara Dossi, Head of
Collections, in collaboration with Dr. Katharine
Lochnan, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings,
the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, where the
exhibition made its debut this winter. At its first
showing, Michelangelo to Picasso was highly
acclaimed in the Canadian press and
enthusiastically attended. Presentation of the
exhibition in New York has been made possible, in
part, through the generosity of the Fellows of The
Frick Collection.
The History of Collecting at the Albertina
The Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna,
developed from the collection assembled over a
fifty-year period by Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen
(1738-1822), the eleventh of the fourteen children of
Frederick Augustus II, Prince Elector of Saxony.
The Duke's refined interest in prints and drawings
and ample financial means allowed him to acquire
entire collections at one time, including his most
impressive purchase of the collection of drawings
and watercolors by Dürer, amassed by Emperor
Rudolph II. Following the Duke's death in 1822, the
collection (consisting of 14,000 drawings and
230,000 prints) was bequeathed to his heir and
nephew, Archduke Charles of Austria. This
collection was combined in 1920 with that of the
prints and drawings of the Imperial Court Library to
form the Albertina. The institution continued to
acquire important works throughout the twentieth
century, and today the holdings comprise 65,000
drawings and approximately one million prints from
all major regions of artistic production, from late
Gothic to contemporary art.
Highlights of the Exhibition
The exhibition offers a window through which to
glimpse the artistic process at its most intimate,
and to gain an appreciation of the full range of the
draftsman's art. While some of the works in the
exhibition are loosely-sketched studies, others are
highly detailed and can be seen as finished works
of art. Among the highlights is Dürer's, Head of an
Old Man of 1521, a meticulously detailed portrait of
a ninety-three-year-old subject, which served also
as a study for his subsequent painting of St.
Jerome. Other drawings which served as studies
for work in another medium are Leonardo's Apostle
(probably Peter), one of the few surviving studies
for the artist's well known The Last Supper fresco
in Milan, and Michelangelo's Seated Male Nude
(Ignudo) and Studies for Two Arms, a preparatory
drawing for one of the male nudes contained in the
ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in the
Vatican. This last work is a particularly rare piece,
as Michelangelo burned so many of his drawings.
From these Renaissance forebears the exhibition
continues through the centuries with examples that
demonstrate a range of drawing techniques and
styles such as Rembrandt's evocative work Farm
Houses Under a Stormy Sky, to Pablo Picasso's
extraordinary large Cubist Head of a Woman, to
Jackson Pollock's improvisational untitled drawing
in black ink.
New Publication Available in Conjunction with the
Exhibition
In a book accompanying the exhibition, Albertina:
The History of the Collections and Its Masterpieces,
Dr. Barbara Dossi, Head of Collections at the
Albertina, presents new research on the fascinating
development of the institution. The softcover book
represents a substantial enlargement of knowledge
about the Albertina, particularly with regard to the
activities of the owners and directors over a period
of nearly two-hundred and fifty years. Published by
Prestel Verlag, the book includes a bounty of
historic images and also highlights eighty works
from the collection. An important scholarly
contribution, this book is available in the Museum
Shop of The Frick Collection for $45.00, or by
calling (212) 288-0700.
Frick Collection
New York, NY
USA United States of America