TEACHING KLIMT Studies at the School of Arts and Crafts
Poster for the International Exhibition of Music and Theatre, 1892, Design Gustav and Ernst Klimt, © Tibor Rauch/MAK
Scarcely any other artist has been the subject of so much literature as has Gustav Klimt. Yet to date the formative influence of his years at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts has received far too little attention. The MAK is now turning its attention to this topic, whereby Ferdinand Laufberger, a professor of Klimt’s whom the latter revered his entire life, is being accorded a place of honor. Besides Laufberger, the Ringstraße artists Ludwig Minnigerode, Friedrich Sturm, and Michael Rieser also left their mark as Klimt’s teachers on his work. Doubtless induced by Rudolf Eitelberger, modern artists such as Anselm Feuerbach likewise exercised an enduring influence on Klimt’s artistic development. The exhibition is thus dedicated to the influence of these years in the School of Arts and Crafts on Klimt’s oeuvre as a whole. Works from the MAK’s rich inventory, on show for the first time, are complemented by loans from international collections, illustrating the relationship between Klimt’s vocational training and his later artistic development.
Guest Curator: Otmar Rychlik
MAK Curator: Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel, Head of the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection/Archive