Lentos Art Museum
As the successor of the New Gallery of the City of Linz, the Lentos Art Museum, which opened in May 2003, is among the most important museums of modern art in Austria. The clear and coherent structural design, created by the Zurich architects Weber & Hofer, provides Linz with a museum of art of international status, positioned in the urban context. The internationally acclaimed 130 meter long building provides approximately 8000 m2 for use and is located directly on the Danube between the Nibelungen Bridge and Brucknerhaus. The appearance of the building is remarkable for its transparent glass casing, attractively lit at night. There is a café with a viewing terrace on the ground floor.
History
120 important art works from the collection of the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt (1888–1965), including paintings and graphic works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Nolde, Corinth and Pechstein, formed the foundation of the collection of the New Gallery of the City of Linz after World War II. Building on these holdings, the city of Linz decided in 1953 to continue the New Gallery as a city museum with an active exhibition program and acquisition policies, and in 1998 to build the Lentos Museum, which opened in May 2003. Lentos seeks to present significant themes and issues of contemporary art in relation to 20th-century art history. And so on... This is exemplified by displaying works and schools of modern art and their consequences, whereby the Lentos collection is highlighted in specific selections according to alternating focal points. Exhibitions of loaned works of 20th century museum art regularly augment the program and communicate a sense of the genealogy of today's art. Ongoing exhibitions are enhanced by a lively program of events, tours, workshops for children and much more.
The collection
The art museum collection comprises around 1500 works from the areas of painting, sculpture and object art, over 10,000 works on paper, and about 850 photographs, including significant contributions to the development of artistic photography (A. Rodtschenko, Man Ray, H. Bayer). The earliest works among the museum's holdings are from the first half of the 19th century (C. D. Friedrich, J. B. Reiter). From the area of classical modernism the Lentos collection includes important paintings by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Corinth and Pechstein. The collection also covers the inter-war period with works from German and Austrian Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). The period after 1945 is exemplified with outstanding works and ensembles of international art, including paintings, sculptures and graphic works by Appel, Bayer, Nay, Warhol, Haring, Staudacher, Lassnig, Lüpertz, Rainer, Chillida, Cragg, Helnwein, Scheibl, Scully, Balkenhol, Caro, Goeschl, Export, Krystufek, Ludwig Merwart and many others.
Internationality of the sculpture collection
Works of the following artists are part of the sculpture collection of the museum: Stephan Balkenhol, Ernst Barlach, Michael Buthe, Anthony Caro, Tony Cragg, Canan Dagdelen, Amadeo Gabino, Mathias Goeritz, Shirazeh Houshiary, Leiko Ikemura, Donald Judd, Jiři Kolár, Catherin Lee, Thomas Lenk, Baltasar Lobo, Claes Oldenburg, A.R. Penck, Klaus Rinke, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Tim Scott, Daniel Spoerri, Rini Tandon, Jan Voss, Simon Wachsmuth und Tom Wesselmann.
The holdings are continuously expanded through active acquisition policies.
Since May 2004 the Viennese curator, critic and journalist Stella Rollig has been the director of the Lentos Art museum. In addition to the existing collection, modern art and the most current trends in contemporary art are presented in changing exhibitions.
Bibliography
- Van Uffelen, Chris. Contemporary Museums - Architecture, History, Collections, Braun Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-3-03768-067-4, pages 146-149.