MILWAUKEE, WI.- The first major exhibition in North America of furniture, decorative objects and fine art from the Biedermeier period (1815 - 1830) will be presented by the Milwaukee Art Museum from September 16, 2006 through January 1, 2007. Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity will survey more than 400 works including painting, works on paper, furniture, silver, porcelain, glass, textiles, metalwork, wallpaper, jewelry and fashion. By examining the rich cultural heritage of the Biedermeier period in Germany, Austria and Northern Europe, the exhibition will show how elements of simplicity, natural beauty, and clarity of form predominated and gave shape to a new aesthetic vision that anticipated Modernism . Many of the works will be on view in the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition will travel to the Albertina in Vienna, the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity is organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum in collaboration with the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin and the Albertina in Vienna. It is curated by Laurie Winters, Curator of Earlier European Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum; Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Director of the Albertina in Vienna; and Hans Ottomeyer, Director of the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, in collaboration with a team of international scholars. A 400-page catalogue with approximately 400 full-color images and four essays by leading experts in the field will accompany the exhibition.

Lenders to the exhibition include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Cleveland Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; the Albertina, Vienna; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin; Museum of Decorative Art, Prague; Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague; The Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, and many other museums as well as private collections in Paris, Vienna, Munich, Chicago and New York.

The Beginning of Biedermeier: The term “Biedermeier” is often assumed to be the surname of a cabinetmaker of the period, but is actually an imaginary character -- a pseudonym that played on the German adjective “bieder,” meaning plain and unpretentious, and “Meier,” a common German surname. Weiland Gottlieb Biedermaier was the name of a fictitious character who was portrayed in a Munich satirical weekly newspaper in the mid-1840s. His daily “common man” activities and naïve poems were showcased for the entertainment of bourgeois readers. Ironically, what began as an intellectual critique of the typical German citizen--who cared more about creature comforts than political activism – turned into new model for living. The furniture, decorative arts, ceramics, glass and paintings of the period reflected the taste of the newly emerging bourgeoisie. Emphasizing less extravagant means, a new standard of beauty was created through proportion, simplicity, utility and elegance. The gilding and frills of the 18 th century were stripped away to emphasize the natural beauty of materials and classical shapes. In the last decade of the 19 th century, Biedermeier became the term used to describe the artistic and cultural period preceding the revolutions of 1848.

U.S. Exhibition Venue: The Milwaukee Art Museum will be the only U.S. venue for Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity . Reflecting the heritage of the population the Midwest, the Museum is well known for its strong collection of 19 th century German and Austrian painting and, recently, a growing collection of work from the Biedermeier period. More than 4.7 million people in Wisconsin and Illinois are of German or Austrian descent. German is still spoken in many households and a thriving constellation of artistic, social and political clubs keep a number of European traditions alive.

“The Biedermeier period is long overdue for study and we hope that the exhibition will attract considerable international attention,” said Laurie Winters. “While it is often difficult to organize exhibitions that include fragile decorative arts, we were fortunate that every lender we approached recognized the significance of the exhibition and was willing to lend. We are able to include every piece of furniture and the decorative arts that we wanted for the exhibition and some of the most important examples of Biedermeier painting. The exhibition represents the very best of the Biedermeier period.”

"This important exhibition brings new light to a period of great innovation that influenced the way people lived in their homes,” said David Gordon, CEO and Director, Milwaukee Art Museum. “The Milwaukee Art Museum is delighted to originate this first exhibition on Biedermeier ever held in the United States with our distinguished partners from Vienna and Berlin. The exhibition and catalogue will be singular and stunningly beautiful.”

Exhibition Background: Biedermeier: The Invention of Simplicity will for the first time elucidate the historical and intellectual movements of the period in the catalogue essays which will discuss the aesthetic conception of basic forms, the beauty of surfaces, new theories of perception, theories of the simplicity of the Viennese aestheticians, the circles of the academies of the fine arts, and the training of craftsmen at the "drawings schools" as early forms of design teaching. The essays will offer a clear definition of the aesthetic principles that inform the Biedermeier style around 1820.

Intentionally excluded from the exhibition are the many revivalist subcategories of historical Biedermeier – Ornamental Antique, Empire style, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque – that have a historical outlook. Rather, the focus is on the Biedermeier style as an innovative aesthetic in its own right, with a new cohesive, pure and unpretentiousness of form that foreshadows modern design. As Laurie Winters writes in the catalogue essay, Biedermeier “is interpreted not as a lowly product of bourgeois taste, but rather as a highly cultivated and refined quest for simplicity and purity that has its roots in the late 18 th century. The provenances for many of the works clearly indicate that the patrons were members of the courts or the aristocracy.”