● 121 artworks by 39 masters of Western art history, including Picasso, Giacometti, Modigliani, and Baselitz
● First Asian exhibition of collection at Albertina Museum in Austria
SEOUL SOUTH KOREA, November 2nd 2010 - The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea is pleased to present Picasso and Modern Art: Passion and Solitude at the National Museum of Art, Deoksugung, from October 26th, 2010 through March 1st, 2011. The exhibition presents the collection of art works at Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria. The Albertina Museum is famous for one of the world’s most extensive collections of graphic art, holding more than a million pieces of Western prints, drawings, and paintings from medieval times to modern times. This exhibition presents major trends from Western art history, through 121 artworks by 39 master artists from the end of 19th century to late 20th century, including Picasso and Giacometti.
The early 20th Century, which forms the focal time period of this exhibition, was the most tumultuous period in world history. European countries vied with one another to possess more colonies and the entire world became embroiled in two World Wars. Many people felt a sense of crisis about the spread of cruelty in humanity. Under such circumstances, artists in Europe felt an overwhelming sense of solitude and found solace through being passionate about their works. In the midst of an unclear anxiety about the future, they tried to find the meaning of life in the creation of art, taking upon themselves the responsibility of portraying the human soul. As a result, paintings came to have their own values and autonomy, expanding beyond the limits of representing or reproducing the subject.
This became the beginning of 20th century art and engine behind contemporary art in the truest sense of the word.
The exhibition will display works that were mostly made in the 20th Century that put an emphasis on subjectivity rather than on imitation and reproduction. The exhibition features works by Pablo Picasso, who expressed the world of human consciousness through distorted figures; Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, whose works contain the figures of lonely spirits; and Marc Chagall, whose works cause the viewer to marvel at the surreal portrayal of his younger days. The exhibition also contains major works from Albertina Museum, including French Fauvism, such as works by Henri Matisse, and German Expressionism, such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s work. This will also be a rare and special opportunity to see drawings by German Expressionist artists that until now have never been shown to the public, and feel their passion and solitude.
121 artworks including painting, sculpture, and drawing from a select group of artists who represent 20th century Western art history will be showcased at the museum. The exhibition is divided into four parts.
The images contained within are in accordance with copyright law
■ Passion for the Inner World
■ The Anxiety of the Times
■ In Search of the Pure
■ The Agony and the Passion
