Iconic Austrian art to be digitalized in Hanoi exhibit

The "Image and Distance" exhibition will include high-definition digital works by the two iconic artists displayed via projectors, monitors, computers, mobile phones.

This is the first time Klimt’s "The Kiss" and "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I", as well as Schiele’s "Four Trees" will be shown to Vietnamese art lovers. Most of the works were created in the early 20th century, an era having witnessed historical events like World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed both artists.

Exhibition poster featuring "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt. Photo courtesy VCCA.

Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA), organizer of the event, stated it would ensure an appropriate physical distance between viewers and art, alongside the employment of social distancing measures.

"In our age of social media and almost limitless image access, it is hoped the exhibition could help us reflect on the way we see and on how this affects daily perception," said Mizuki Endo, director art at VCCA.

The "Image and Distance" exhibition will be held from May 31 to July 31, at Vincom Center for Contemporary Art (VCCA), Vincom Mega Mall, Royal City, 72A Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi. Entrance is free.

Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918) and Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918) were contemporaries based in Vienna during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Klimt rebelled against academic education and the conservative art world. Many of his paintings reflect a strong sense of eroticism, life and death, and he also took the initiative to develop the function of painting as decoration.

Schiele looked up to the older Klimt and was greatly influenced by him, but rather than aesthetic refinement, he pursued simple yet dynamic paintings that put everything into vital strokes.