Monet to Picasso ~The Batliner Collection ~ at the Albertina

Vienna, Austria - At the beginning of May 2007, the art collection of Rita and Herbert Batliner totaling 500 works was transferred to the Albertina as a permanent loan. The Batliner Collection includes major works by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Chagall, Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Kandinsky, Sam Francis, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Bacon and is one of the leading European private collections. On exhibition 14 September 2007 - 6 April 2008.

Starting point of this major presentation is French Impressionist painting, with paintings, pastels and gouaches by Monet, Renoir und Degas. These are followed by work groups by Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec, also Bonnard, Veillard und Signac. High points of the show are without doubt the portrait of a girl in pastel by Auguste Renoir, the late "Water Lily" picture by Monet, the "Young Woman in a Blouse" by Modigliani, and the work group by Pablo Picasso.

Another key section focuses on German Expressionism, with the two artists' groups "Die Brücke" and "Der Blaue Reiter". Alongside these are outstanding examples of Surrealist art, with works by Joan Miró, Max Ernst und René Magritte.

This exhibition of the Batliner Collection is being joined by a selection of 20 major pictures from the Forberg Collection, which was likewise recently transferred to the Albertina. The foremost works here are by Paul Klee and his contemporaries Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, August Macke and Franz Marc. The exhibition finally culminates in the late work of Pablo Picasso, as well as sculptures, drawings and paintings by Alberto Giacometti.

A new chapter in the 250 years of history of the Albertina opens its pages The Batliner Collection becomes part of the Albertina This enlargement of the collection means that the Albertina is now Austria's only museum qualified to fill the gap existing hitherto in international, classical modern art, with major works of French Impressionism and Post-impressionism, the German Expressionism of the Blauer Reiter and the Brücke groups, the Fauves, and the Russian avant-garde from Chagall to Malevich. The transfer of the Batliner Collection brings with it in particular nearly 40 Picassos, among them ten major paintings and many drawings, graphics and ceramics, which now enrich the Albertina with one of the largest museum inventories of Picasso's works.
Degas' graceful dancers, Monet's water lily pond and Renoir's sensitively rendered portrait of a girl are just some of the French Impressionist highlights from the Batliner Collection at this exhibition. German Expressionism is represented by Kirchner, Feininger, Kandinsky and Nolde, while special sections are devoted to the Austrian Expressionist Kokoschka and the elongated, thin figures of Italian sculptor Giacometti.

The show culminates in ten paintings, fifteen drawings, printed graphics, and eight ceramic works by Picasso, never previously on public display. These are contrasted with early works by Francis Bacon inspired by the Spanish master.

The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print room collections in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphics works and masterwork paintings.