CITY OF WOMEN

FEMALE ARTISTS FROM 1900 TO 1938

At the beginning of the twentieth century, women were firmly anchored in Vienna’s art scene. They exhibited on equal footing with Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele and made notable contributions to the era of Viennese Modernism. With the 1938 Anschluss (annexation), they were banished from art history and seemingly forgotten. Supported by Dorotheum, the Belvedere exhibition City of Women takes an important step in bringing these artists back into focus and paying tribute to their enduringly impressive achievements.

According to Stella Rollig, artistic director of the Belvedere: “The Belvedere is famous for
its collection of works from the period of Viennese Modernism. It is therefore all the more
important to me to make the forgotten female side of this epoch visible in its full dimension.

The artists of those years were and still are a great inspiration, and their works have been wrongly ignored for almost a century.” With works by around sixty artists, the show offers a comprehensive view of artistic creation by women as an essential part of Vienna’s exhibition scene in the decades between 1900 and 1938. Chronologically following their biographies, it makes an impressive case for the extent to which classic modernity was shaped by female artists. Their works run the gamut of major movements manifested in the first half of the twentieth century, such as Atmospheric Impressionism, Secessionism, Expressionism, Kinetism, and New Objectivity. Broncia KollerPinell’s work is particularly present throughout the show, acting as a common thread uniting the different developments. The artist, who had Jewish roots and died in 1934, contributed significantly to most of these art movements. Through historical photographs and documents three displayed in the Lower Belvedere, old haunts of Viennese Modernism, such as the Secession or the Miethke Gallery, are recalled, situating the women and their art within.

Curator: Sabine Fellner