Erika Giovanna Klien - pioneer of "Viennese Kinetism" - at Galerie Kovacek

With the museum exhibition "Erika Giovanna Klien - Viennese Kinetism", the gallery is showing an extensive 160-page catalog, for which Dr. Marietta Mautner Markhof, Daniel Pabst, and Mag. Angelika Karner were responsible for the scientific editing and which, with private archive material of the artist, provides deep insights into her pedagogical views, her artistic work, and her private life as well as Viennese Kinetism.

L'Officiel Austria had a conversation with Sylvia Kovacek about the exceptional artist. After studying abroad at Christie's in London and Paris, an expert for antiques at the auction house in the Kinsky, she has been managing director of Galerie Kovacek since 2005.

Ms. Kovacek, what makes Erika Giovanna Klien so special as a representative of Viennese Kinetism?

Sylvia Kovacek: "Klien stands for the epitome of Viennese Kinetism through her outstanding talent alone. This style, which combines Expressionism, Futurism and Cubism, emerged - uniquely in the history of modernism - not from a group of artists but from a school class. Franz Cizek, who was regarded as an innovator of art education in terms of his progressive art teaching at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, encouraged his pupils not only in terms of their self-confidence and the establishment of their own style but also through their presence in national and international exhibitions."

How did this shape Klien's career?

Sylvia Kovacek: "These circumstances promoted the development of Klien's own form of Constructivism, which she successfully presented at the International Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Paris as early as 1925. One year later, her works were again exhibited at the 'International Exhibition of Modern Art' at the Brooklyn Museum in New York as a representative of the Cizek School and the only representative of Austrian Modernism alongside Duchamp, Kandinsky, Klee, and Picasso."

That sounds quite remarkable! How is she known today?

Sylvia Kovacek: "Her works are represented in international collections. As one of the very few Viennese avant-garde artists, Klien already enjoyed a high international profile at that time. Due to her reputation, she was called to New York in 1929, where she taught at the most important schools in addition to her own work as a freelance artist. And despite all the adversities, the recurring affronts against her progressive pedagogy in an art and teaching establishment dominated by men, and at the greatest personal sacrifice - she leaves her young son in Austria with foster parents - Klien tries to establish herself as a young, single artist in the USA and to internationalize Franz Cizek's teachings.

What made her so successful in the USA? 

Sylvia Kovacek: "Constantly pushing her highly individual form of kinetism while always being open to new forms of expression and artistic currents, Klien's death in 1957 leaves behind a comprehensive artistic oeuvre that integrates the most diverse references from painting, graphic art, theatre and dance throughout her life."

Klien only came to the attention of the Viennese public again through an exhibition at the Wien Museum or the Belvedere. The Kovacek Gallery, however, celebrated her legacy much earlier. Why did Klien fall into oblivion in the first place?

Sylvia Kovacek: "The forgetting of Erika Giovanna Klien is unfortunately not an individual fate. Like many other women artists - for they are mostly women's fates, as has recently been the subject of major exhibitions in this country as well as internationally - they were banished from art history and forgotten with the Anschluss in 1938. The Second World War represented a major caesura for the artist. With the events of the war, she lost contact with helpful networks, patrons, and collectors."

And what was the situation like for Erika Giovanna Klien after the Second World War? 

Sylvia Kovacek: "After the war, when Klien tried to gain a foothold in the free economy, her German ancestry - despite accepting US citizenship in October 1938 - may also have made it difficult for her to re-enter the art world or continue her artistic successes, especially due to the campaigns of the 'McCarthy era'. Despite all adversities, Klien created a fantastic late work in the 1950s, including 'Subway Symphony', in which all her artistic mastery and personal experience culminate. Planned for public space, as installations in New York underground stations, this project was unfortunately never realised."

What happened to her body of work after her death? 

Sylvia Kovacek: "Erika Giovanna Klien was single and even after her death her artistic and private estate was merely kept by her sister Bertha Klien-Moncreiff, but not actively looked after in the sense of a publication of her oeuvre. It was not until the 1960s that Bernhard Leitner began to work on her oeuvre, and with the gallery owner and collector Michael Pabst, who purchased the estate and made it known to an interested public, it returned to international art interest. Through exhibitions - among which I may mention the solo presentation of works by the artist in our gallery in 2001 - and publications, Erika Giovanna Klien is now finally once again counted among the most important Austrian avant-garde artists."

Which of her works can you look forward to seeing in the gallery?

Syvlia Kovacek: "We are presenting over 60 paintings, drawings, graphics and linocuts by the artist from three decades. Klien's many different themes encompass her diverse oeuvre. Beginning with an early pencil study from 1920 and chronologically impressive works from the last series 'Subway Symphony'. The end of her oeuvre. We are particularly pleased to present 'St. Stephen's Cathedral' and 'New Year's Eve', two of Kliens' extremely rare and also early oil paintings." 

Erika Giovanna Klien's "Diving Bird" is probably one of her most famous works. Which one can you recommend to us as an "insider tip" or which is your favourite work in the exhibition? 

Sylvia Kovacek: "A painterly masterpiece is undoubtedly the aforementioned painting 'Stephansdom' (St. Stephen's Cathedral) from 1923 - the main work of her early creative years and an exceptional rarity, as her complete oeuvre comprises only a few works in oil. In keeping with the early style of her work, the forms are deliberately infantile, while the composition of the architecture, rendered in a variety of views, is very complex. The Gothic motif is clearly analysed, dissected and then masterfully staged in all its geometric perfection. The complex perspective harmonises outstandingly with the reduced colour combination of deep cobalt blue and the contrasting red, brown and yellow, so that a very own, overriding, almost contemplative calm is created. An exceptional work, then, in every respect!"