Viennesse modernism pioneer Gustav Klimt will soon call The Getty Center home, as the museum will display more than 100 of the Symbolist painter’s drawings that have never before been exhibited in the U.S.
“Gustav Klimt: The Magic of Line, Drawings from the Albertina Museum, Vienna” premieres at The Getty on July 3 and is “the first major museum exhibition devoted entirely to the modern master’s drawings,” according to a release. It explains the exhibition “traces Kilmt’s radical evolution from early academic realism and historical subjects in the mid 1880s to his celebrated modernist icons that broke new ground in the beginning of the 20th century.”
Klimt is famous for his elaborate paints in which the subjects are submerged in a mosaic of jewel-like color and gold. An accomplished draftsman, Klimt worked with black chalk and pencil for his drawings and drew attention to the extreme refinement and intensity of his line.
“In looking at four decades of drawings by Klimt, this exhibition reveals how he tackled line, space and the human figure, developing into one of the most distinctive, seminal figures in Modernism,” said James Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, in the release. “It is precisely the kind of exhibition for which the Getty has earned its international reputation.”
The exhibition, which will display through Sept. 23, is being released alongside the 150th anniversary of Klimt’s birth on July 14, 1862. Los Angeles will join his native Vienna to celebrate the anniversary with special events and exhibitions throughout the end of the year.
Like Haute Living Los Angeles? Join our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @HauteLivingLA. Want Haute Living Los Angeles delivered to your inbox once a week? Sign up for our newsletter.
