MONET TO PICASSO: MASTERWORKS FROM THE ALBERTINA, BATLINER COLLECTION

29 November 2008 - 21 December 2008

With its 500 works of classical modern art, the Batliner Collection is one of the largest and most important private collections in Europe. The collection came to the Albertina as a permanent loan in 2007.

 
The exhibition leads from French Impressionism and Fauvism to German Expressionism and Cubism, as well as to the various movements of the Russian avant-garde, Alberto Giacometti, and the late works of Picasso and Chagall.
This display of the Batliner Collection is complemented by important works from the Eva and Mathias Forberg Collection , which was likewise transferred to the Albertina as a permanent loan. The focus of this collection is on classic modernism, with outstanding works by Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, and August Macke.
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Picture gallery

 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Portrait of a young girl (Elisabeth Maître), 1879 
Claude Monet

The water lily pond, around 1917-1919 
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Female Nude (Dodo), around 1909 
Paul Signac

Venice, The Pink Cloud, 1909 
 
Pablo Picasso

Naked woman with bird and flute player, 1967 
Pablo Picasso

Woman in a green hat, 1947 
Kasimir Malewitsch

Man in a suprematist Landscape, c. 1930/31 
Pablo Picasso

Akt in einem Sessel sitzend, 1963 
 
Pablo Picasso

Still Life with Guitar, 1942 
Marc Chagall

The Kite, 1926 
Edvard Munch

Winter Landscape, 1915 
René Magritte

The Enchanted Spot, 1953 
 
Alexej von Jawlensky

Young Girl in a Flowered Hat, 1910 
August Macke

Coloured Form Composition, 1914 
 

Rita and Herbert Batliner have been collecting art for almost half a century. Whereas at the beginning they were mainly fascinated by the art of their contemporaries, such as Alberto Giacometti’s, the passion of the Liechtenstein couple soon also embraced both the groundbreaking masters of classic modernism and contemporary art, ranging from Monet, Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani to Mark Rothko and Francis Bacon, and ultimately to Alex Katz, Maria Lassnig, Anselm Kiefer, and Georg Baselitz.

In spring 2007 Herbert and Rita Batliner donated their precious collection, which has been incorporated into a foundation, to the Albertina in the form of a permanent loan: they consider their collection, which is to be preserved for posterity in its entirety and original context, as their genuine legacy. Their collection does not only reflect their vision as collectors, but also their souls. For decades Rita and Herbert Batliner had been living in their home particularly with that part of the collection whose chronological cornerstones constitute Claude Monet’s Water Lilies and Picasso’s breathtaking late works.