Klimt, Schiele,
Moser, Kokoschka: Vienna 1900
by Karen
Marie-Amélie zu Salm-Salm, Editor
Lund Humphries, Burlington VT, 2005
368 pp., illus. 236 col. Trade, $100.00
ISBN: 0-85331-934-0.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa
ballast@netins.net
In Western art history, innovations called
"Modernist" are almost exclusively
credited to artists working in Paris at
the beginning of the 20th Century. Inspired
by French Impressionism and the Post-Impressionist
work of Cézanne, their efforts
coalesced to form Fauvism and Cubismwhereupon
everything spun off from that. Or at least
that is the typical view, so much so that
until a few years ago, according to this
book, the work of such prominent Austrian
artists as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele,
both world famous, had only once been
shown in France. This rich, large format
volume (with ample full-color plates throughout),
and the exhibition it documents (held
at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais
in Paris in the Fall of 2005-6) were attempts
to question the usual view that Modernism
emerged solely (or at least primarily)
from Impressionism, but instead (according
to Serge Lemoine) "to see how other
trendsjust as important and just
as innovativefound outlets in France
and other parts of Europe."
Not surprisingly, the leading contender
for this crown of historical leadership
is turn-of-the-century Vienna, which is
ably represented here by four extraordinary
Modernists: Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele,
Koloman Moser, and Oskar Kokoschka. Schiele
and Kokoschka were largely painters (with
occasional excursions into poster design),
while Klimt and, especially, Moser were
not only painters but also spent considerable
time designing utilitarian forms, such
as furniture, murals, jewelry, and clothing
(indeed, they were linked with a famous
cooperative called the Wiener Werkstätte).
In other words, they were designers (or,
disparagingly, "commercial artists"),
as distinct from supposedly uncompromising
fine artists who made only self-expressive,
non-functional art, among them those we
worship now as the purveyors of Modernism.
If Klimt, Schiele and their associates
have been snubbed in art history (and
that may very well be the case), it may
not only be because they were French outsiders,
but also, as much or more so, because
they dared to step outside the category
of fine art. Art, as Gloria Steinem once
said, is "what men created,"
while design and crafts (traditionally
known as the decorative arts) were objects
"made by women and natives."
One of the virtues of this book (which
makes it unusual and worthy as well) is
its deliberate emphasis on the embedded
geometric plans that appear in the work
of these Austrian artists. As is pointed
out, for example, there is an uncanny
resemblance between certain compositions
by Klimt and James A.M. Whistler. Both
these artists saw abstractly and, to some
extent, they blazed the trail for non-pictorial
"abstract art." Yet, Whistler
(world famous for his mother painting)
is taken no more seriously than Klimt
or Schiele, in part because he too is
seen as having drifted away from High
Art in order to dawdle in craft and design.
Another way this book stands out is that
it looks very carefully at the paintings
of Koloman Moser. It discusses not his
Wiener Werkstätte furniture, jewelry,
posters and so on (he was remarkably versatile),
but, instead, looks exclusively at his
paintings and shows that his work was
influenced by the Swiss-born painter Ferdinand
Hodler (who is himself a fascinating subject).
One last point: Whenever it features a
full-page reproduction of a painting,
this book includes, on the opposite page,
a brief but highly informative text about
its historical and biographical contexts,
along with helpful notes about how we,
the viewers, might look at it.
Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review from Vol 21 No 3
(Spring 2006).