Afterwards: Documentary “Viennese Art Nouveau – Departure into Modernism” – on May 27th on ORF 2
Vienna (OTS) – The “kulturMontag” presented by Peter Schneeberger on May 27, 2024 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2 deals with the work of the Secessionists Gustav Klimt, Franz von Stuck and Max Liebermann on the occasion of a new exhibition in the Vienna Museum. In keeping with this, the documentary “Viennese Art Nouveau – Departure into Modernism” (11:15 p.m.) can be seen after the magazine. Furthermore, in a report from Warsaw, “kulturMontag” is dedicated to the cultural change in Poland, which was ushered in by the new government of the liberal-conservative Prime Minister and ardent European Donald Tusk. Another topic of the program is, among other things, the new film with Helen Mirren, in which the Oscar winner Golda Meir, the first and so far only female prime minister of Israel, plays.
The freedom of art – Klimt, Stuck and Liebermann in the Vienna Museum
At the fin de siècle, with the advent of modernity, the avant-gardists, including the symbolist Franz von Stuck, the impressionist Max Liebermann and the Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt, pushed for freedom in terms of content and institutions. Until now, artist associations organized by estates had set the academic tone and also the traditional style. The result: There were splits, the so-called Secessions. Stuck, Klimt and Liebermann were at the head of the three Secessions that emerged in 1892 in Munich, 1897 in Vienna and 1899 in Berlin as a counter-proposal and protest movement to the prudish, traditional artistic taste of the Wilhelmine and Habsburg empires. Their credo was the diversity of art styles, their goal to present progressive art from abroad and to network national artists internationally. The exhibitions quickly became a place for the latest avant-garde art, where it was all about seeing and being seen – a cultural event that could not be missed in art and artist circles. The aura of elitism that surrounded these exhibitions due to strict selection procedures only added to their appeal. In a way, the Secession exhibitions were also forerunners of today’s art biennales and a brand that was committed to progress. The new, non-conformist nature immediately caused greater and greater interest; today the Secessionists’ pictures are crowd pullers all over the world. It is a blockbuster with depth that the designated Albertina boss Ralph Gleis made possible for the Vienna Museum. As still head of the Berlin National Gallery, his exhibition “Secessions. Klimt, Stuck, Liebermann” now in the house on Karlsplatz, where he was curator for years.
Poland is not lost yet – cultural change in Warsaw
In the parliamentary elections in October 2023, Poland’s right-wing national party PiS – “Law and Justice” – which dismantled democracy and the rule of law with right-wing populist policies during its eight years in government, once again became the strongest force, but did not find a coalition partner. The electorate ensured a change of power by giving an opposition alliance a majority in the Sejm. The new liberal-conservative Prime Minister and ardent European Donald Tusk is trying to return to democracy and the rule of law with his coalition and bring about a cultural change in his deeply divided homeland. For example, he dissolved the public media, declared the controversial judicial reform unconstitutional and wants to overcome the country’s EU skepticism. How do artists and cultural workers see the changes? For example, the anchorman of the news channel Teleexpress Maciej Orłoś, who lost his job shortly after the PiS government came to power and is now back on board, or the curator Marta Czyz, who is responsible for the Poland pavilion at the 60th Biennale and was originally responsible for it The designated right-wing painter was replaced by a Ukrainian collective. KulturMontag brings a report from Warsaw.
Israel’s Iron Lady – Helen Mirren as Golda Meir
She has a fighting spirit as an actress, was awarded an Oscar as “Queen” and is embarking on a hellish journey into the political abyss in her new film. Dame Helen Mirren has always loved daring roles. In Guy Nattiv’s film “Golda”, the now 78-year-old Brit plays the legendary first female prime minister of Israel, Golda Meir. She was a Zionist by conviction and was nicknamed the “Iron Woman” in Israel, showed toughness towards her Arab neighbors and was Israel’s first and so far only female prime minister. For the founder and first prime minister of the young country, David Ben-Gurion, she was “the only real man” in his cabinet at the time of Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14, 1948. Despite her reputation for indomitability, the politician, born Golda Mabovich in Kiev in 1898, was destroyed by the Yom Kippur War of 1973, which ended almost catastrophically for Israel. With “Golda”, the Israeli director Guy Nattiv does not deliver a biopic, but a chamber play about the dark chapter of the three-week war that caught the Jewish people off guard on October 6, 1973, the highest Jewish holiday. His film is about the woman who has to assert herself in a very dangerous situation in a male-dominated society. The fact that neighboring states such as Syria and Egypt chose exactly that day for their invasion, without Israel’s secret service and military suspecting anything or following clear warnings, is the material that gives “Golda” a particular explosiveness. What parallels can be drawn from then to now? The writer and historian Doron Rabinovici is a live guest with Peter Schneeberger in the studio.
Documentary “Viennese Art Nouveau – departure into modernity (11:15 p.m.)
Vienna around 1900, a city of radical contrasts. In the working-class districts, part of the population is becoming impoverished, but in the center of the Austro-Hungarian metropolis a breath of fresh air is blowing – no, it is almost a storm: science and business, art and culture are developing almost explosively. “Ver Sacrum” – holy spring – is the title of the magazine published by the Vienna Secession, and it is blooming lushly this spring. A large part of the artists had broken free from the shackles of historicism. Gustav Klimt became the first president of the Secession, and Art Nouveau became the defining art movement of those years. In his documentary, Rudolf Klingohr tells of the time when Vienna embarked on the path to modernity – and of the mostly Jewish patrons who, as sponsors and clients, helped artists achieve world recognition.
In the second half of the 19th century, the imperial family pursued one of its most gigantic prestige projects: the construction of the Vienna Ringstrasse, the “Via Triumphalis” of Habsburg power. With the demolition of the city wall, a lot of building land became available and thanks to a change in the law, Jews were able to purchase plots of land here. They are financially strong industrialists or bankers from the Crown Lands and from Germany who are now reflected in the cityscape with their buildings and are becoming the most important financiers on the Ringstrasse. The Schey and Ephrussi families are among the most prominent investors. Or Karl Wittgenstein, a perpetual outlier and school dropout who preferred to work as a bar musician in New York before becoming an industrialist, an important representative of the Wilhelminian era and a patron of art. While the palaces and representative buildings on the Ringstrasse were entirely committed to historicism, the Secessionists radically broke with tradition. Inspired by the French Art Nouveau, Viennese-style Art Nouveau became the dominant art and architectural movement. Gustav Klimt painted portraits of his prominent clients, which promoted their reputation. Josef Hoffmann was one of the architects who built their homes and furnished them with his design work from the Wiener Werkstätte. Today these works are expensive collector’s items or can be seen as exhibits in the world’s most important museums. Contacts were made in the salons of busy networkers like Berta Zuckerkandl.
Behind the promotion of Art Nouveau by Jewish patrons was also the desire for social recognition. This resulted in a great symbiosis between the artists of the Secession and the wealthy families of the late 19th century. However, the acceptance of Jewish bourgeoisie and industrialists remained a pipe dream for a long time. Even in their heyday, many of them were ostracized as “parvenus” by the old establishment. The political agitation of the anti-Semitic mayor Karl Lueger and the emergence of the Nazis caused this narrative to be demolished in the early 20th century.