Gustav Klimt in the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Curated by Dr. Otmar Rychlik

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Gustav Klimt on July 14, 2012, the Kunsthistorisches Museum will showcase its important wall paintings designed and executed by the celebrated painter and draughtsman.

In 1890, a year before the formal opening of the newly- erected Court Museum housing the Imperial art collections, Gustav Klimt, his younger brother, Ernst, and a friend and colleague, Franz Matsch, were commissioned to execute the series of paintings depicting important periods of European art, among them Ancient Egyptian as well as Ancient Greek and Roman art. This magnificent series is still displayed between the columns and above the arcades in the Main Staircase, about 12 m above the Entrance Hall.

A specially-built bridge spanning the width of the Main Staircase will offer visitors a close-up view of Klimt’s paintings on the north wall.

In addition, a temporary show in the Special Exhibition Gallery will present the evolution of the series, a seminal work in Klimt’s oeuvre around 1900. It will focus on Gustav Klimt’s “Ringstrassenperiode”. Paintings and graphic works from the holdings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, augmented by loans from public collections in Switzerland and Germany as well as from private collectors, will showcase Klimt’s oeuvre from his paintings for the Burgtheater to those commissioned for the Kunsthistorisches Museum to Klimt’s “golden period”.

The Klimt Pass
Discover the artist and his works in Vienna‘s most important museums. By showing this pass at the cash desks whenever you visit a Klimt exhibition you will save € 1,- on each adult admission. When you have collected 10 stamps a "Klimt" present is waiting for you (ready for collection in all participating museums). With 5 or more stamps you can participate in the grand lottery:

1st - 3rd prize: an exclusive weekend on Lake Attersee including a visit to the Klimt-Centre and a trip on the Klimt-boat
4th - 10th prize: a Klimt-catalogue package (one catalogue of each of the 10 exhibitions!).

Just drop the complete pass at the cash desks of the participating museums.