The exhibition features 202 works by 57 artists, said museum director László Baán. Much of the show concentrates on drawings and graphic reproductions, but it is rounded out by several outstanding paintings, he added.
The bulk of the works are on loan from the Albertina in Vienna, but some have come from private collections in Austria, Switzerland, the United States and Japan. One of the show?s curiosities ? Klimt?s Life is a Struggle or The Golden Knight ? arrived from a collection in Japan, Baán said.
The exhibition was originally planned for 2008 at the same time as the Museum of Fine Arts showed works by Ferdinand Hodler. But Nuda Veritas was not allowed outside of Austria at the time, and museum staff did not want to hold the exhibition without its title piece.
Marian Bisanz-Prakken, an art historian at the Albertina and the curator of the show, said the exhibition presents the richest period of Austria?s art history. Klimt?s Nuda Veritas was created a year after the establishment of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and it ?shocked the public opinion?, she said. The frame of the picture is also extraordinary, the work of Klimt?s brother, the goldsmith Georg Klimt, she added.
The show is organised chronologically, said co-curator Zsuzsa Gonda. It starts with the early work of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, such as that in the journal Ver Sacrum, which was illustrated by the school?s members for six years.
The exhibition has been organised at a cost of about HUF 100 million. Nuda Vertias has been insured for EUR 25 million and all of the works in the show for about HUF 35 billion.
The exhibition runs from September 23, 2010 until January 9, 2011.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
