MoMA Lecture on Nazi Stolen Gustav Klimt Portrait
Larissa Bailiff returns to us from the Museum of Modern Art to discuss the Nazi stolen Gustav Klimt portrait of Adele Block-Bauer II Tuesday, May 5th at 7 p.m.
Get a sneak preview of a new painting on display at the Museum of Modern Art. One of two formal portraits that Gustav Klimt made of Adele Bloch-Bauer, an important patron of the artist, is now on view at MoMA as a special long-term loan from a private collection. Adele Bloch-Bauer was the wife of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy industrialist in Vienna, where Klimt lived and worked. Completed in 1912, the composition emphasizes Bloch-Bauer’s social station within Vienna’s cultural elite. Her towering figure, in opulent dress, is set against a jewel-toned backdrop of nearly abstract patterned blocks that suggest a richly decorated domestic interior. In 1938, the Nazis took possession of this portrait along with other works of art in the Bloch-Bauer family’s collection (including Adele Bloch-Bauer I, now in the collection of the Neue Galerie, New York). In 2006, after years of legal negotiations, the works were returned to the Bloch-Bauer heirs and subsequently sold to other collections.
Larissa Bailiff is a specialist in late 19th-century and early 20th century French art and culture. Formerly an associate educator at MoMA, she continues to give tours and teach online and in-person classes for the museum. Larissa also serves as the coordinator for the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s new Mellon-funded Seminar in Curatorial Practice.
Refreshments will be served.
Additional parking for evening and weekend library programs is available at Thorndal Circle, behind Nielsen’s.