Klimt before Klimt - his work in Romania in a new exhibition at the Peles National Museum

  The fixed works painted at Peles Castle by Gustav Klimt, the young man who was to become the leader of the Viennese avant-garde, and his collaborators Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch, are brought closer to Romanian art lovers in the new documentary exhibition "Gustav Klimt and Künstler-Compagnie at Peles". The exhibition, curated by Dr. Antonela Corban, presents and explains in detail some essential paintings of the Romanian and European heritage, accessible or too fragile to be shown as such to visitors of the Peles National Museum, works that will never leave the walls of the Castle. The project can be seen from October 8 to November 2 in the temporary exhibition rooms of the Peles National Museum (Aleea Pele?ului 2, Sinaia). The texts and photographs on the panels are complemented by the video documentary "Gustav Klimt and the Künstler-Compagnie at Peles", specially made for the occasion by director Carmen Lidia Vidu. The project is the result of the collaboration of the National Museum Peles with the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Cultural Association "Un concept Luna", in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute and the MINA Museum. The official sponsor of the exhibition is Banca Comerciala Româna.   The exhibition will be officially opened on October 16, at 13.30, during a special event, in the presence of H.E. Ulla Krauss-Nussbaumer, Austrian Ambassador to Romania, the curator Antonela Corban, and representatives of the Romanian Commercial Bank. The opening will be followed by a double piano recital with pianists Remus Henning and Eduard Gheorghita.   Realized between 1883 and 1886, the early works realized at Peles by the Klimt brothers Klimt and Franz Matsch, members of the artistic collective "Künstler-Compagnie", are less known to the Romanian and European public, but as valuable as the famous creations of Gustav Klimt's adulthood, existing in the great museums of the world. This exhibition is intended as a contribution to the efforts of the Peles National Museum to make better known the works of these great Austrian artists that adorn one of Romania's landmark architectural monuments, works that have been classified in the "Treasure" category of national cultural heritage.   The exhibition takes as its starting point the volume "Gustav Klimt and Künstler-Compagnie at Peles" (Ed. Junimea, Ia?i, 2024), which Antonela Corban has elaborated after a research spanning several years, in collaboration with the National Museum Peles. The collection here is of particular importance because "it is the most successful of all the works by the three artists from the same period, with the largest number of works, with a unified thematic, iconography and style of realization. And also because it completes the overall picture of Klimt's work by bringing together some of the works of his youth, which exist in our country, with those of his maturity, which are so well known and appreciated and which have reached not only European cultural spaces, but also museum collections in America and Japan", says Antonela Corban, curator of the exhibition. The paintings at Peles are an essential link in the overall picture of Gustav Klimt, whose youthful creations are sometimes overlooked, even though they adorn landmark buildings in Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia and other countries.   The exhibition is accompanied by a short documentary film "Gustav Klimt and Künstler-Compagnie at Peles" directed by the well-known theater and film director Carmen Lidia Vidu (together with two other leading visual artists - Sabina Costinel, image, editing, and Julien Javions, sound). The film explores in detail the creations of the three Austrian artists at Peles, explained by the curator of the exhibition, Dr. Antonela Corban, and the Director of Heritage of the Peles National Museum, Mircea Hortopan.   After the Peles National Museum, the exhibition "Gustav Klimt and Künstler-Compagnie at Peles" will go on a nationwide tour.