MONET TO PICASSO: THE BATLINER COLLECTION

THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF THE ALBERTINA

24 December 2008 - 17 May 2009
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.
 
Some 100 works now displayed in a permanent exhibition trace the historical progression from Impressionism to Modernism. The artists range from the French masters Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne, to Pablo Picasso, represented by late works, and the Abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko and Sam Francis.
 
The Batliner Collection is augmented by works from the Forberg Collection in Switzerland, which was also transferred to the Albertina on permanent loan.
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Picture gallery

 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Portrait of a young girl (Elisabeth Maître), 1879 
Edgar Degas

Two Dancers, circa 1905 
Karel Appel

Face in a Landscape, 1961 
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 
Francis Bacon

Seated Figure, 1960 
Pablo Picasso

Still Life with Guitar, 1942 
 
Sam Francis

Dream It Is, 1962-63 
Marc Chagall

The Kite, 1926 
Mark Rothko

Saffron, 1957 
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 nearly half a century. Their initial focus was on contemporary artists such as Alberto Giacometti. Very soon, however, the collector couple from Liechtenstein developed a passion for the pioneers of classical modernism.
 
Their collection grew to include works by such 19th and 20th century masters as Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Alex Katz, Maria Lassnig, Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz.
 
In spring 2007, the couple transferred their immensely valuable collection from the Herbert and Rita Batliner Art Foundation to the Albertina on permanent loan. The intention behind their decision was to preserve for posterity the collection, which they see as their main legacy, in its entirety and original cohesion.
 
For decades the Batliners lived with many of the works in their home, primarily the part of the collection that ranges chronologically from a Monet water-lily painting to powerful late works by Picasso.
 
Now, for the first time ever, key works from the Batliner Collection have been made accessible to the general public. More than 100 paintings, pastels and sculptures from the collection are on permanent display at the Albertina.
 
The exhibition covers French Impressionism, Fauvism, German Expressionism, Cubism, several currents in the Russian avant-garde, and the late periods of Picasso and Marc Chagall. Major works by Francis Bacon, Karel Appel and Mark Rothko complete the overview of a century of art history.
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