Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

Austrian Expressionism & Otto Kallir: Jane Kallir, Nathan Timpano, Timothy Benson, & Sabine Eckmann

The evening program at LACMA celebrated a landmark donation from the Otto Kallir family, comprising 130 Austrian and German expressionist works—including 27 paintings, watercolors and drawings by Egon Schiele and nine by Gustav Klimt. The gift, announced last fall, fills a long‑standing gap in LACMA’s collection, which has been strong in German expressionism but thin on its Austrian counterpart. Key data points highlighted the breadth of the donation: rare pieces by Richard Gerstl, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin and other Vienna Secession figures, as well as works linked to the Vina Birketa circle. Speakers traced Kallir’s career from his 1919 Ferlagno press and the Nea Gallery in Vienna, through exile in Paris and New York, to his role in introducing Austrian modernists to American museums and facilitating restitution of Nazi‑looted art. Jane Kallir recounted her grandfather’s early ambition to become an aeronautical engineer, his pivot to art publishing, and his strategic emergency fund that enabled his family’s escape after the 1938 Anschluss. She emphasized Kallir’s 1957 Sheila exhibition that secured a partnership with Thomas Messer, leading to the 1965 Guggenheim show that finally placed Schiele and Klimt on the U.S. map. The panel also contrasted Austrian modernism’s distinct identity from German expressionism, noting that artists like Klimt were repeatedly rejected by German institutions. Looking ahead, LACMA will mount a major 2030 exhibition accompanied by a scholarly catalog, while the Rifkine Center will sponsor a research program on Austrian modernism. The donation not only enriches LACMA’s holdings but also cements Los Angeles as a leading center for expressionist scholarship, linking historic émigré networks to contemporary curatorial practice.