Opening: Fri 15 Jun, 5 pm
Exhibition: 15 – 24 Jun 2012
National Library

From Austrian Embassy:

Gustav Klimt – Forerunner of Modernism – 150th Anniversary

“The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918) can be seen all over Hanoi on canvases, lacquer plates and boxes, coffee mugs….. Klimt embodies the beauty, seductiveness and boldness of “Art Nouveau”, the revolutionary art movement around 1900 in Europe like few other artists.

He lived in a time and a place of cultural path-breaking, together with fellow Viennese like Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, or Arnold Schönberg.

Painter of many “icons” – “The Kiss” is by no means the only iconic painting by Klimt. His many female portraits (depicting numerous ladies of the then Austrian high society), and female allegories form a narrative of the Vienna art nouveau era. These works depict a unique eroticism and psychological depth. His landscape paintings are of breathtaking beauty as well.

With an exhibition held on the occasion of Klimt’s 150th birthday and the 40th anniversary of Austria-Vietnam relations, the National Library of Vietnam and the Austrian Embassy want to present this Austrian, Viennese artist and his times to the public in Hanoi.

For more information, contact Austrian Embassy Hanoi
Tel: (+84/4) 39 43 30 50, Email: hanoi-ob@bmeia.gv.at, thi-hoang-ha.nguyen@bmeia.gv.at, Website: www.daisuquanao.org.vn or www.aussenministerium.at/hanoi