Exhibition participations
Gustav Klimt, the MAK, and Immendorf Castle
Burnt, Destroyed, Vanished?
MAK, Vienna | 16.07.2025—21.09.2025
8 May 1945 not only marks the end of the Second World War, it also stands for one of the greatest losses in cultural assets in Austrian history, triggered by a devastating fire that ravaged Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria. Even today, the events surrounding the fire in the country seat of the Freudenthal family, which served as a valuable and seemingly safe art storage depot in the Second World War, have not been fully clarified. The exhibition offers profound insight into the sheer scale of the disaster.
In addition to the three faculty paintings for the Main Ceremonial Hall of the University of Vienna with the corresponding composition designs, the works that were burned include the overdoor paintings Music (1897/98) and Schubert at the Piano (1899) from the Palais of Nikolaus Dumba on Vienna’s Ringstraße as well as the paintings The Golden Apple Tree (1903), Country Garden with Calvary (1912), Wally (1916), Friends II (1916/17), Garden Path with Chickens (1916), and Leda (1917) from the expropriated collection of August and Serena Lederer.
The State Arts and Crafts Museum in Vienna (now the MAK) lost to the flames: the Laxenburg Room stored in Immendorf Castle, various objects from the MAK Asia Collection, arts and crafts from the early modern period, over fifty pieces of furniture, leather wallpaper, twelve carpets, and the Möchling Tomb, a wooden shrine carved in the shape of a Gothic church from the 15th century.
Alongside original plans and a new architectural model of the castle, the exhibition will show a new film documentary on the events at Immendorf Castle with interviews with witnesses of the period. Original documents such as recovery lists kept at the MAK and valuable archive material provide further profound insights into the events.
Guest Curator: Peter Weinhäupl, Director, Klimt Foundation, Vienna
Curator: Rainald Franz, Curator of the exhibition and Curator MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
An exhibition of the MAK in cooperation with the Klimt Foundation, Vienna.
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IN-SIGHT: Gustav Klimt. The Bride
Belvedere, Vienna | 15.05.2025-05.10.2025
In 1917, the last year of his creative life, Gustav Klimt began to paint one of his largest paintings, the allegorical The Bride. Due to his surprisingly early death in February 1918, the painting remained unfinished. A now legendary photograph taken by Klimt's favorite photographer Moriz Nähr shows this work together with the painting Lady with Fan, presented at the Upper Belvedere in 2021/22, in the painter's studio in Vienna-Hietzing.
The exhibition from the Belvedere series IN-SIGHT, curated by Sandra Tretter, Klimt Foundation, and Franz Smola, Belvedere, focuses on this enigmatic allegorical painting. The master's last studio and in particular the encounters that took place here between the painter and important companions form the opening of the exhibition. In addition to the stories of fellow painters Egon Schiele and Felix Albrecht Harta, the reports of the writer Arthur Schnitzler and the Japanese art connoisseur Kijiro Ohta, for example, the messages of Friederike Beer-Monti, who was portrayed by Klimt, are also highlighted. The main work in the exhibition, Klimt's painting The Bride, is in turn contextualized by numerous pencil drawings in which Klimt carefully prepared many of the figures present in the work. Further studies can be found in his sketchbook, the last one he had in use before his death. These sketches are now being presented to the public for the first time on a larger scale, allowing direct comparison with the finished painting. In the course of the preparations for this show, The Bride was subjected to detailed technical and radiographic examinations, the results of which will also be presented. Finally, the history of the painting from its creation to the present day will also be told. It was initially owned by Klimt's life companion Emilie Flöge. It was later acquired by Klimt's first illegitimate son Gustav Ucicky. The work was regularly shown in exhibitions, especially in the 1920s. Following the incorporation of Klimt's last allegory into the collection of the non-profit Klimt Foundation in 2013, The Bride has primarily been on loan to the Belvedere since 2014.
The exhibition is being organized in cooperation between the Belvedere, Vienna and the Klimt Foundation, Vienna.
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Klimt. La Secessione e l’Italia
Museo di Roma-Palazzo Braschi, Rome | 27.10.2021-27.03.2022
In 2021 Rome celebrates the 150th anniversary of its elevation to the capital of the united and newly established Kingdom of Italy. On this occasion, the Museo di Roma is showing a spectacular exhibition devoted to Gustav Klimt's work, the stimulating and inspiring connections of the painter with Italy and the achievements of the Vienna Secession. Belvedere curator Franz Smola curated this exhibition, together with Sandra Tretter, Scientific Director of the Klimt Foundation, and Maria Vittoria Marini Clarelli, Sovrintendente ai Beni Culturali di Roma. This show is accompanied by an extensive exhibition catalogue in which Sandra Tretter and Peter Weinhäupl, among others, explain Klimt's trips to Italy and sources of inspiration in detail for the first time.
The Klimt Foundation contributes numerous loans, in addition to the Belvedere, Vienna and private lenders. The important painting The Bride (1917/18, unfinished) is being presented abroad for the first time in over 80 years. Friends I (The Sisters) (1907), a double-portrait that Klimt created during his summer sojourn on the Attersee and was presented at the Biennale di Venezia in 1910, will also be exhibited in Rome. More than 60 additional objects from the foundation’s collection, including drawings by Klimt, autographs, photographs and posters for the shows of the Vienna Secession are also displayed in this exhibition.
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Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century
Leopold Museum, Vienna | 22.06.2018-04.11.2018
Sandra Tretter, the Klimt Foundation’s Head of Research, has been invited by the Leopold Museum to present the genesis of Klimt’s last large-scale allegory within the framework of the museum’s comprehensive Klimt exhibition. Featuring among the exhibits is the artist’s only extant sketchbook, which will be shown to the public for the first time, and which affords intimate insights into the painting’s creation process.