23 September 2016

Influences of art from Africa and Oceania on early 20th century art movements

From today until 9 January 2017, Leopold Museum Vienna presents pieces from the museum founder's own collection of artefacts from Africa and Oceania together with art works by Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Emil Molde, Max Pechstein or Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Last mentioned for example was inspired in the 1920s by African art for a chair with sculpture detail which appears as it originates originally from Africa. By walking through the exhibition 'Foreign Gods', many art works seem at first almost like copies of original outer-European art. By a closer inspection, visitors will become aware that the famous representatives of European 20th century art movements applied groundbreaking new techniques for opening unseen perspectives on other believe systems and the world of ritual. Surrealism (referring the subconscious, the world between dream and reality) and Cubism (the deconstructed static figures begin visually to move on the canvas such as at Pablo Picasso's works) are the main European art movements referenced at the exhibition 'Foreign Gods'.

fig.: Insight into the 'Ghana and Nigeria' room at the exhibition 'Foreign Gods' at Leopold Museum Vienna (23 September 2016 - 9 January 2017). © Leopold Museum, Vienna, Photo: Lisa Rastl.

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