VIENNA, AUSTRIA..-Featuring over 100 exhibits, this show at the Austrian Gallery Belvedere provides an overview of so-called "atmospheric impressionism" - an Austrian variation of impressionist landscape painting. The exhibition will end on July 4, 2004.   

The main master of this movement in painting was Emil Jakob Schindler (1842 – 1892). He discovered the motifs for his pictures in the immediate vicinity of Vienna, the Prater meadows, Vienna Woods and the Wachau. He passed on his emotional and poetic empathy with nature and his way of capturing the unique characteristics of a landscape to his students and kindred spirits – to such an extent that ultimately this could even be deemed to be a separate “school”. Of these Olga Wisinger-Florian, Maria Egner, Carl Moll and Tina Blau deserve special mention. They carried their own individual and poetic view of nature – something that was also not unfamiliar to Gustav Klimt – into the twentieth century. 

Further representatives of this style included: Rudolf Ribarz, Eugen Jettel und Robert Russ, Tina Blau and Olga Wiesinger Florian. Part of their work was devoted to depicting the Vienna of old, with scenes of Prater park, the Wachau region and the Vienna Woods. The paintings originate from Austrian and international museums and private collections. 

“Atmospheric Impressionism” was a movement in Austrian painting between 1870 and 1900 which had a decisive influence upon the artistic approach to landscape. This style turned away from the heroic landscapes of Historicism, yet on the other hand was to a large extent untouched by Secessionism The term has been commonly used for this style of painting since about 1950 and conveys how artists sought to capture atmosphere in their pictures. Of course the word “Impressionism” cannot be equated with the familiar art historical term. Indeed the compositions of the Atmospheric Impressionists often reflected a style more akin to Realism.

 The depictions of the Austrian painters were inspired by the works of the “School of Barbizon” (Millet, Rousseau), but transformed what these artists had accomplished. They went beyond representations of reality and tried with their special responsiveness to convey the mood of the beholder.

 

 

Pie