This exhibition at the Albertina Museum presents a significant part of the Batliner Collection, featuring a comprehensive overview of Modernist art. It highlights Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, German Expressionist, Russian avant-garde, and numerous masterpieces by Picasso, tracing the evolution of art from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.
The Albertina Museum in Vienna proudly displays "MONET TO PICASSO: The Batliner Collection," a cornerstone of its permanent exhibitions. This collection, a permanent loan from the renowned collector Herbert Batliner, represents one of Europe's most important compilations of Modernist art. The exhibition begins with Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters such as Degas, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Gauguin, then moves through German Expressionism with groups like _Brücke_ and _Der Blaue Reiter_, and the art of New Objectivity, featuring works by Wacker, Sedlacek, and Hofer. Austrian art is explored through pieces by Kokoschka and Egger-Lienz, while the Russian avant-garde is showcased with works by Goncharova, Malevich, and Chagall.
The presentation culminates with a remarkable array of Picasso's chefs-d'oeuvre, spanning his early Cubist works, his prolific 1940s period, and innovative prints and paintings from his experimental late phase. Herbert Batliner, a visionary collector and patron, entrusted this extraordinary collection to the Albertina in 2007, significantly shaping the museum's identity and its capacity for displaying modernist and contemporary art to the public. His legacy is intertwined with the museum's ability to host major exhibitions and its continuous engagement with art history from Impressionism to the contemporary era.