Klimt, "Adele Bloch-Bauer" 1907, oil and gold leaf on canvas
My eyes hurt today from weeping at the last fourth of the filmWoman in Gold last night. Maybe because its scale was more intimate, like Polanski's The Pianist which underscored the total life disruption of a single person in the Holocaust, it remained easier to identify with the devastating losses of one woman, Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann in World War II than with the masses in, say, Schindler's List. There was also that tear-provoking scene in which the young American attorney embraces the magnitude of his grandfather Arnold Schoenberg's legacy to the world for the first time when listening to a concert performing the latter's work. It was just a name before.
This true story of the destruction WWII wrought on her family's lives and of their world class art collection looted by the Nazis brought tragedy home very subjectively for me (to watch at least) since the characters considered their lives and their art to be interchangeable, as do I. It is also a Law & Order type procedural, action/escape adventure, road movie and tale of redemption. Bigtime recommend.
In the interest of balance I offer one of the few accounts in English of the international legal issues addressed in the film:LINK.* Vienna was and is a city dedicated to the arts and music, and I believe its art-appreciative citizenry were let down badly by their leaders' refusal to negotiate with Ms. Altmann in order to have these Austrian masterpieces remain in Vienna. As David Gionfriddo wrote me, "Austria outsmarted itself by trying to steamroll her with legalities."
Another friend Mark Leviton wrote me, "Historically Vienna has some of the greatest artists and worst politicians."And why? From my reading and brief visit to Vienna, i believe Vienna has just as huge a disconnect between its populace and its leadership as we do at present. My only first hand knowledge observation came from my late grandfather who briefly lived in neighboring Heidelburg, Germany before WW1, (joining dueling and drinking clubs with the actual Student Princes.) He said "it broke my heart to see what Germany did to its own people. I believe the German people, unlike their tyrant leaders, were good people."
It's almost a prosaic cliche that university students take to Klimt as their first art history discovery (see Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 4 first episode wherein vampires have a wagering tally of Klimt's "The Kiss" versus Monet's "Waterlilies" posters kept as trophies from the freshmen they kill) but Klimt has been a personal favorite since a UCLA art teacher of mine pointed out to our class that the very realistic depictions of human physiognomy anchored all the wild stuff.
a detail from Klimt's "Beethoven Frieze," 1902, wall mural for Secessionist Exhibit
Klimt, Birnbaum (pear tree) 1903, oil on canvas
So much of Klimt's legacy was bombed into oblivion during WWII. The following works,
"Shubert at the piano," 1899, oil on canvas, and "Two Girlfriends," 1916, oil on canvas exist only in photographs. (Thank goodness for Kodachrome's early invention.)
Addenda vis a vis the film's lawsuit premise: although the paintings' eventual sales proceeds were divided among several heirs, Ms. Altmann's portions mainly went to charities such as The Holocaust Museum and her own Foundation.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Austria_v._Altmann