LACMA Gifted Viennese Modernists
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Otto Kallir (1894–1978) was the founder of Vienna's Neue Galerie, which some may know as the namesake of the private museum in New York. Hitler's annexation of Austria forced Kallir to flee to Paris, then New York. There he ran the Galerie St. Etienne, introducing Klimt, Schiele, and company to American audiences. Initially there were few takers. The gallery survived by dealing in paintings by the American folk artist "Grandma" Moses, the most commercially successful woman artist of the mid-century U.S.
Otto died in 1978. Granddaughter Jane Kallir ran Galerie St. Etienne until its closure in 2021. Last year, the family's nonprofit Kallir Research Institute, which sponsors scholarship, opened a new space in Manhattan. The family has been placing its collection in museums. In 2024 Jane told The Art Newspaper: "One of my goals is basically to give away my family's collection."
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| Egon Schiele, Sawmill, 1913. Kallir family, promised gift to LACMA |
A group of Käthe Kollwitz drawings and proofs went to MoMA by combined gift and purchase. The Kallir trove of a hundred "Grandma" Moses paintings is being distributed to museums coast to coast, including the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
At LACMA the Kallir gift fills an obvious gap, for it lacked Austrian works to complement its broad and deep holdings of German Expressionism. As the LACMA press release notes, there is a long list of Austrian creatives who made a mark in Los Angeles (Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Arnold Schoenberg, Peter Lorre, Fritz Lang, Joseph von Sternberg, Billy Wilder…)
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| Gustav Klimt, Woman with the Fur Collar, 1897. LACMA, gift of Kallir family |
The Kallir gift's sole Klimt painting is a tiny (14-1/4 × 7-3/4 in.) portrait, Woman with the Fur Collar, created the year the artist co-founded the Vienna Secession. It's accompanied by eight Klimt drawings.
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| Egon Schiele, The Bridge, 1913. Kallir family, promised gift to LACMA |
Two Schiele landscape paintings both date from 1913. The Bridge is 35-3/8 in. square. There are 19 works on paper and four self-portraits by Schiele, including the watercolor Self-Portrait with Brown Background.
LACMA will debut 24 works this fall in "Austrian Expressionism and Otto Kallir," a small exhibition running Nov. 23, 2025–May 31, 2026 in BCAM. A full presentation and catalog of the Kallir gifts are planned for 2030.
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| Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Brown Background, 1912. LACMA, gift of Kallir family |
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| Käthe Kollwitz, The Survivors, 1923. LACMA, Gift of Kallir Family |
Comments
The Schiele "Sawmill," of 1913 is lush and rich, emblematic of the artist. One could hardly conceive that it was done by anyone else.
> works this fall...in BCAM
I caught myself at first wondering what part of the Geffen Galleries the works would be displayed in. Oops. These objects are in the modern category. Moreover, the Geffen already is going to have some space turned over to contemporary artworks, which is even worse. Worse because contemporary now takes up portions of the Broad and (currently) Resnick buildings. I recall LACMA once even exhibiting items in the Joe Price/Goff/Japanese Pavilion that would have been a better fit for BCAM, where the new gift will be shown.
By contrast, LACMA since 2020 hasn't made an effort to have its collection's older, non-modern, non-contemporary periods of art on constant display. What's that all about?
Meanwhile, an entire room in the Resnick contains contemporary objects that riff on the Metropolitan Opera's chandeliers.