A closer look at Richard Gerstl

Among the main representatives of Viennese Modernism, Richard Gerstl is the most difficult to grasp. Many myths surround the painter, who died early. The Kunsthaus Zug is dedicating a large, top-class special exhibition to this idiosyncratic rebel.

Along with Klimt, Kokoschka and Schiele, Richard Gerstl (1883–1908) is still regarded today as the most enigmatic artist of Viennese Modernism: the fact that his oeuvre fell into oblivion for a long time after his early death has made his reappraisal an even more exciting field of research in recent decades. Leading Viennese museums have recognised the importance of this "first Austrian Expressionist", and one of his key works shares space with the main works of Gustav Klimt in the Upper Belvedere.

This unique painting – "The Sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey" – is now on loan to the Kunsthaus Zug, together with other 39 Gerstl exhibits, including several other major works. Following the major Gerstl Retrospective exhibition in Frankfurt in 2017, the Kunsthaus Zug though its exhibition "Richard Gerstl – Inspiration-Vermächtnis” (a legacy of inspiration), which has been created as a cooperation with Vienna's Leopold Museum, is now writing another chapter in the gripping history of discovery of this misunderstood and rebellious Viennese artist, who is still little-known outside Austria, and whose life began in 1883 under well-protected and socially-privileged circumstances.

Dramatic suicide of an unstable genius
There is painfully little biographical information about Richard Gerstl, whose talent was recognised early on, but whose egocentric, sometimes arrogant traits caused offence, and caused him to fall out with his personal environment. Nevertheless, some important contacts with the Viennese art scene paved the way for him to a certain extent.

A fateful friendship with the family of the composer Arnold Schönberg already heralded the early end of Gerstl's life: his abruptly exposed love affair with Schönberg's wife Mathilde in 1908 led to a serious rift with the composer. The psychologically undeveloped painter then took his own life in a spectacular manner. The Zug exhibition repeatedly builds a bridge to this dramatic episode at the climax of Gerstl's work.

Any attempt to grasp or even comprehend Richard Gerstl as a person is doomed to failure, insofar as it remains pure conjecture. The same applies to his art, from which hardly any constant can be read. Various exponents have tried to characterise Gerstl's art with terms that leave (too) much room for interpretation – unsparing, self-confident, exemplary, radical. But one thing can be clearly stated: Gerstl almost rebelliously set a counter-accent to the then-dominant style of the Vienna Secession. He largely rejected the ideal of beauty and aesthetics, and shunned the "good tone" in art and its established conventions.

An approach to the work and the people behind it takes place, above all, through the path of juxtaposition – on the one hand with the works of style-defining contemporaries, and on the other with artistic responses to Gerstl from the second half of the 20th century after the almost forgotten Viennese had gradually been rediscovered.

The connection from Zug to Vienna
The Kunsthaus Zug played an essential role in this process of rediscovery: the Viennese sculptor Fritz Wotruba acquired a large part of Gerstl's estate in the 1950s and donated it to the Würthle Art Gallery in Vienna, which at that time belonged to the patron couple Fritz and Editha Kamm-Ehrbar from Zug. Through the skilful management of this hitherto forgotten fundus, the couple contributed significantly to the rediscovery of Gerstl's work.

Key works include Richard Gerstl's self-portraits.
The large-format paintings are given plenty of space to unfold their effect.
Portrait of Richard Gerstl's father.
A separate room is dedicated to Gerstl's smaller-format landscape paintings.
Kunsthaus director Matthias Haldemann planned the exhibition over  years working together with the Leopold Museum.
Photos: Stefan Kaiser, Zug

Their close relations with the Viennese collector couple Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold gave a significant boost to the reception of Gerstl’s oeuvre. In addition to the Upper Belvedere, the museum of the same name in Vienna, which was created from the Leopold Collection in 2001, now has most of Gerstl's almost 60 known paintings and 8 drawings. The Kunsthaus Zug itself, as the home of the Kamm Collection, has ten of his works.

With its special exhibition with a total of 40 Gerstl works, which has been in planning for a long time together with the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the Kunsthaus Zug is now following the above-mentioned path of the Viennese artist's confrontation with the work of his contemporaries, and even more so with that of later exponents of the art. The dialogue with Otto Mühl's voluminous material paintings, the expressive portraits of Georg Baselitz or the explosions of colour by Hermann Nitsch highlights Gerstl's obvious willingness to experiment creatively.

On the other hand, the accompanying drawings by Schiele, Kokoschka, Kubin or Klimt from the in-house collection illustrate how Gerstl found an independent expressive work full of stylistic innovations long before the above-mentioned ones.

Radical detachment from all conventions
A video performance by Günter Brus from the 1970s, with extremely explicit content, impressively shows how Richard Gerstl inspired the representatives of the activism that emerged in the 1960s. In this way, Brus uses new forms to take up the radicalism against all conventions, through which Gerstl had also distinguished himself in his time.

And yet: Gerstl could also be quite "gentle". In some oil paintings, a love for meticulousness and detail is reflected – charming portraits of women, his old gentleman sitting on a chair, a mother with child, an expressive Arnold Schönberg with a cigarette, and so on.

But contradictions and rule breaking are already emerging again; what artist has ever portrayed himself as a guffawing, laughing person before? Or as a semi-nude with an almost divine aura? At the latest in his full-body self portrait as a completely naked man, Gerstl himself becomes the product of his painting. And two painting styles on top of each other in one and the same picture.

As if all this were not enough, there also follows an unexpected material dissolution of the figurative in his late work, which overturns any previous attempts at classification. One will have to admit that, in view of this work, which is difficult to fathom, pictorial genres would have to be redefined.

Attention is also paid to Gerstl's less sensational small-format landscape paintings, which were mainly created during the momentous stay with the Schönbergs at Lake Traunsee. This creative field has also created reactions, with artistic responses from more recent times. In addition, quotations from artists about Gerstl and his work can also be read in all the rooms. The view of third parties on the incomprehensible allows further attempts at a rapprochement.

Deliberately not monographic
For Kunsthaus director Matthias Haldemann, the opening of the special exhibition, which was originally planned for 2020 and had to be repeatedly postponed due to corona, is a special moment, as he says. The vernissage was preceded by years of preparation, combined with logistical feats, for example with regard to the transfer of precious loans from the Viennese museums. "Our exhibition is deliberately not designed monographically," says Matthias Haldemann. "Because we don’t want to portray Richard Gerstl as an isolated figure, even though he will continue to be regarded as the great unknown of Viennese Expressionism."

According to Matthias Haldemann, the reception of Gerstl is an ongoing process, within which the artist is constantly being rediscovered. "No development in the classical sense can be determined in his short artistic life," he explains. Consequently, it will come down to the fact that Gerstl's position within Viennese Modernism must be corrected. The final classification of his work will lead to further intensive investigations. Matthias Haldemann:

"With the exhibition, we are now continuing to write this story."

It’s certainly true: With "Richard Gerstl – Inspiration Legacy", the Kunsthaus Zug will have a lasting impact on Richard Gerstl's perception outside Austria, and will advance the exploration of this radical anti-Secessionist.

«Richard Gerstl – Inspiration Legacy», special exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zug from 14 August to 4 December 2022. Details on the exhibition and the accompanying programme under www.kunsthauszug.ch.