Albin Egger-Lienz - Dance of Death

The "Dance of Death" by Albin Egger-Lienz back at Schloss Bruck. Welcome to the museum!

A masterpiece back in its homeland

Those who visit the Museum Schloss Bruck located in East Tyrol will be surprised by the density of masterpieces by the Austrian painter Egger-Lienz. More than just a surprise, a real sensation is the latest addition that Lienz can now boast: The "Dance of Death" in a version of the fourth edition, auctioned in June 2021 as the artist"s most expensive work so far at Dorotheum, will now be on display in the exhibition rooms at Schloss Bruck.

The "Dance of Death" is more than just a painting. For Albin Egger-Lienz, it became the dominant theme with which he engaged in continuously changing forms between 1906 and 1921. As characteristic as the painting is for Egger"s oeuvre, so typical is also his repetition of a subject, an essential aspect of modern painting. The "Dance of Death" is also of special importance for the Museum Schloss Bruck, which, together with its collection, counts as one of the main collection locations of Egger-Lienz along with the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum and the Museum Leopold.of special significance. The fifth version of this central work of the artist was housed in the museum for many decades. In the course of provenance research carried out by the city of Lienz, the painting was returned to the heirs of the Jewish previous owners in the early 2000s, and in an auction in 2006, it passed into the private ownership of Rupert-Heinrich Staller. He provided the work to Schloss Bruck for a major exhibition curated by the Spanish art historian Helena Pereña in 2014 – the“Summer vacation at home”, as the current owner puts it, was only temporary.

The gap in the documentation of Egger"s painterly development could now be closed by a version of the IV. version. A Tyrolean private foundation acquired the masterpiece in a Dorotheum auction in 2021, after the painting had spent a whole century in America, and made it available to the Museum Schloss Bruck "for an indefinite period, at least 10 years". The artwork, which was last seen in public in 1918 at the Emil Richter art dealership exhibition in Dresden and in 1920 moved to the USA with its

    Mayor LA DI Elisabeth Blanik is particularly pleased that Bruck Castle was chosen. “It is a great sign of the strength of cultural work in our city, of the quality of the Schloss Bruck Museum – and of course an incredible honor to be able to present this masterpiece of Austrian modernism here in Lienz.” This was done in a small, internal presentation The picture was presented to media representatives on Friday in the knight"s hall of the medieval castle. The President of the Tyrolean State Memorial Foundation, DDr. Herwig van Staa, who developed a special relationship with the artist"s work through his friendship with Ila Egger-Lienz, and Dr. Helena Pereña, chief curator of the Villa Stuck Museum in Munich, led the event. “With the 4th version, Lienz now has a variant that is directly influenced by Egger’s experiences in the First World War and therefore occupies a key position in the development of the motif,” says Pereña, who is also enthusiastic about the excellent condition of the casein painting. More than 100 years after it was created, the work has lost neither its appeal nor its message or meaning.

    As you can see, I want to depict the impact of war and death in these few figures. It shall not be done through blood and corpses, in the force and simplicity [...] I want to seek the monumental, the style, with which I believe to approach this topic.

    Albin Egger-Lienz to Heinrich Hammer, 1907

    Upcoming

    Ausstellungen, Events & Vernissagen

    Albin Egger-Lienz - Dance of Death Albin Egger-Lienz - Dance of Death

    Albin Egger-Lienz - Dance of Death

    More about