Facing the modern
Subtitle: the portrait in Vienna 1900
By: Gemma Blackshaw ; with an introduction by Edmund de Waal ; with contributions from Tag Gronberg, Julie M. Johnson, Doris H. Lehmann, Elana Shapira and Sabine Wieber
Contributors: De Waal, Edmund, author of introduction; Gronberg, Tag, contributor; Johnson, Julie M., contributor; Lehmann, Doris, contributor; Shapira, Elana, contributor; Wieber, Sabine, contributor; National Gallery (Great Britain)
Publisher: National Gallery London
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 215
ISBN-13: 9781857095616; 9781857095463
Subjects: Austrian Portrait painting; Exhibitions; Austrian Portraits
Description: During the great flourishing of modern art in fin-de-siècle Vienna, artists of that city focused on images of individuals. Their portraits depict artists, patrons, families, friends, intellectual allies, and society celebrities from the upwardly mobile middle classes. Viewed as a whole, the images allow us to reconstruct the subjects' shifting identities as the Austro-Hungarian Empire underwent dramatic political changes, from the 1867 Ausgleich (Compromise) to the end of the First World War. This is viewed as a time when the avant-garde overthrew the academy, yet Facing the Modern tells a more complex story, through thoughtprovoking texts by leading art historians. Their writings examine paintings by innovative artists such as Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele alongside those of their predecessors, blurring the conventionally-held distinctions between 19th-century and early 20th-century art. Exhibition: The National Gallery, London, UK (09.10.13.-12.01.14.).
Notes: Catalog for an exhibition held at the National Gallery, London, October 9, 2013-January 12, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 204-207) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: On Stage: The New Viennese / Gemma Blackshaw; title: Past Times and Present Anxieties at the Galerie Miethke / Gemma Blackshaw; title: Biedermeier Modern: Representing Family Values / Tag Gronberg; title: Portraying Viennese Beauty: Makart and Klimt / Doris H. Lehmann; title: Klimt, Schiele and Schonberg: Self Portraits / Gemma Blackshaw; title: Women Artists and Portraiture in Vienna 1900 / Julie M. Johnson; title: Imaging the Jew: A Clash of Civilisations / Elana Shapira; title: A Beautiful Corpse: Vienna's Fascination with Death / Sabine Wieber.