The Albertina Museum in Vienna is presenting a fascinating exhibition titled "Gothic Modern" that explores how artists around 1900 sought and found inspiration in Gothic art for their modern artistic expressions. The exhibition, running until January 11, showcases the work of artists who looked to medieval Gothic aesthetics as a foundation for revolutionary new art forms.
Ralph Gleis, who became the Albertina's director on January 1 after serving as head of the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin since 2017, brought this impressive exhibition to Vienna as his inaugural gift to the city. Working with co-curator Julia Zaunbauer, Gleis presents the results of a research project conducted since 2018 across Berlin, Helsinki, and Oslo. The exhibition, officially titled "Gothic Modern. Munch Beckmann Kollwitz," features these three artists as cornerstone figures alongside 39 other international artists, including both highly prominent names and exciting rediscoveries.
Visitors to the exhibition experience surprise, wonder, uncertainty, and curiosity about what constitutes "modern" in this context. Gleis has created a theatrical journey through stations that display the mysteries of life and death, love, pain and suffering, devotion and surrender, resurrection and light - much like the tableau vivant (living pictures) popular in the 19th century. The exhibition presents powerful confrontations between works: skulls by Arnold Böcklin, Gustav Klimt, Otto Dix, Max Klinger, and Vincent van Gogh seem to gaze at each other across the galleries.
The show features dramatic religious scenes, including depictions of Christ's dying cry "My God! Why have you forsaken me?" by artists such as Edvard Munch, Lovis Corinth, and Georg Minne. Dark, mystical landscapes create an atmosphere of contemplation and unease, including Max Klinger's "Isle of the Dead," Rudolf Otto Schatz's "Weather Firs," and Schongauer's "Saint Anthony." Informative wall texts guide visitors through the perceived parallels between this particular strain of modernism and Gothic art, highlighting what Gleis calls the "expressive kinship" between the two periods.
This connection becomes particularly striking when comparing nude representations, such as the contrast between Schongauer's "Saint Sebastian" from the late 15th century and Egon Schiele's "Male Nude" from 1912. The exhibition reveals how modern artists found in Gothic art not just visual inspiration but a spiritual and emotional resonance that spoke to their own era's anxieties and aspirations.
Among the exhibition's highlights are fascinating sculptures by Georg Minne, Käthe Kollwitz, and Ernst Barlach, as well as the magnificent tapestry "Adoration of the Kings" (1888) by Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. The show also features significant works from Scandinavian artists, including mystical paintings by Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Norwegian Emanuel Vigeland's striking glass paintings.
What unites all these artists working between 1875 and 1925 was their shared rejection of academic tradition and Romanticism, coupled with their direct confrontation with Gothic icons and aesthetics. For this "other modernism," Gothic art served as both a starting point and a challenge, offering an alternative path to artistic innovation that differed markedly from the more familiar narratives of modern art development. The exhibition demonstrates how these artists created a distinctive strand of modernism by reaching backward to medieval sources, ultimately forging a unique artistic language that was simultaneously ancient and thoroughly contemporary.
