The portrait in Vienna and Europe

First week of a two part course at the National Gallery looking at the current exhibition “Facing the modern : the portrait in Vienna 1900” and putting the works into context.

This week led by Rachel Barnes concentrated on Vienna and was a good description of the exhibition taking us through the pictures and discussing why they have been hung in the way they have and what dialogues this sets up between works and artists. Because the show jumps around in chronology the talk did too and I would have liked just a bit more structure to it. I would also have liked a bit more context on how and when the Succession was set up and what society was like at the time. It was a fun talk but I think I was just looking for a bit more.

The second half looked at Klimt in a bit more detail but as the first session had overrun this was quite brief and again I would have liked a bit more and a bit more of run through his life. It would be great to have done the same with some of the other artists but there again it’s only a four hour course and we have the rest of Europe to cover next week! I am just being greedy!

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