International Art News

Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917). Two Dancers, ca. 1905. Pastel on card. Batliner Collection. Albertina, Vienna. Photo © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

14 March 2012 – 31 December 2012 – Albertina
In spring 2007, one of Europe’s greatest private collections of classical modern art came to the Albertina as a permanent loan from the Rita und Herbert Batliner Foundation in Liechtenstein.

The Albertina is now in a unique position to compensate for the major gaps in the Austrian state-run museums’ holdings of international modern art with key works of French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, German Expressionism, Fauvism and the Russian avant-garde.

Pablo Picasso- Woman in a green hat, 1947 - Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection © Succession Picasso / VBK, Vienna 2011. Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

The Batliner Collection has received acclaim from museums and connoisseurs for decades. It includes outstanding works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Amedeo Modigliani, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon. These masterpieces can be seen in a new permanent exhibition at the Albertina.

The Batliner Collection is augmented by works from the Forberg Collection in Switzerland, which was also transferred to the Albertina on permanent loan.

Herbert and Rita Batliner began collecting art nearly half a century ago. Due to their close friendship with the legendary art dealer Ernst Beyeler, French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting formed a cornerstone of the collection from the very beginning, along with the work of Alberto Giacometti. Exceptional works by Monet such as The Water-Lily Pond, Edgar Degas’ Two Dancers, or Cézanne’s Arc-Tal and Mont Sainte-Victoire landscapes attest to the couple’s passion for French art.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Portrait of a young girl (Elisabeth Maître), 1879 - Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection. Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

Picasso became an additional focal point. Today he is represented in the collection with over 40 works, including ten paintings and numerous drawings and one-of-a-kind ceramics.

In the course of his travels, Herbert Batliner gained familiarity with Russian avant-garde art. He and his wife were inspired by the works they saw in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, to build their own fine collection of Russian avant-garde art from 1905-35.

The focus of their acquisitions was on Marc Chagall, but they also sought out works by Natalia Goncharova, Liubov Popova und Mikhail Larionow. The collection includes a major work by Kazimir Malevich, painted as a defiant memory image immediately following the artist’s release from a Stalinist prison.

Kees van Dongen- Woman with Blue Eyes, 1908- Albertina, Vienna - Batliner Collection © VBK, Wien 2009. Photo: © Fotostudio Heinz Preute, Vaduz

The permanent exhibition spans the most fascinating chapters from more than 130 years of art history, from Impressionism to the most recent present. Paintings by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Miró, Klee, Kandinsky, Chagall, and other masters offer a survey of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the Fauves, Expressionism, and the Russian avant-garde. With late works by Picasso and exhibits by Rothko and Bacon, the exhibition leads over to the second half of the twentieth century, before it ends with works by contemporary artists such as Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.

Albertina opening hours

December 18, 2010 — January 16, 2011 – Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents a solo exhibition of painter Viktor Dynnikov (1939-2005). He was born on October 25 — the same day as Pablo Picasso, but 58 years later. Dynnikov regarded this coincidence with irony: «The fact that I have discovered such a parallel with a great Fauve like him boosted my morale. Why should I feel inferior if I was born and live in such a great place as Russia?» After school and military service, Dynnikov enrolled in the faculty of graphic arts at the Pedagogic Institute in Krasnodar. After having spent three years there, he abandoned everything and moved to Leningrad. He wanted to acquire fundamental artistic education, so he was admitted to the Academy of Arts. The drawing of a sitter that he created during entry exam hung in the office of the admission committee for many years after, as a perfect example.

In 1970, after graduating from the Academy, Dynnikov moved to Vladimir — ‘a blessed corner, nice and graceful to the core,’ as he later wrote. Enduring years came: he had neither a studio, nor even a place to live. Then Dynnikov’s works were often judged ambiguously: «My searches and those of my friends weren’t welcomed by everyone. A searching creation didn’t fit into the cheerful system called ‘Vladimir school of landscape painting’. We didn’t match them. Talented veterans tried to teach us how to live and create in the right way. But we were young and had our own opinions.»

With equal dose of passion, Dynnikov worked in pastel, gouache, and charcoal, attaching huge importance to the material. He often varied the same motif in different techniques, looking for the best accord with his thoughts, feelings, and plastic sensations that changed through time. During 35 years spent in Vladimir, the artist took part in nine exhibitions, including two solo shows (1985 and 1989). The second of these shows faced harsh antagonism from the regional committee of the communist party that claimed the exhibition to be too ‘mundane’, with an absence of any positive character.

Since 2006, thanks to the efforts of three galleries — ARS LONGA, ART-RA, and EXPO-88 — Dynnikov’s works were presented in 25 exhibitions, including 12 solo shows, and the artist’s name became familiar to a wide circle of professionals and public. To commemorate the artist’s jubilee, the galleries published an album that includes over 150 pieces from the extensive heritage of the artist.

The exhibition hosted by the Moscow Museum of Modern Art will be the first full-scale retrospective of the artist, presenting well-known and lesser-known works.

Museum Hours