The period known as Vienna 1900 is so close to my heart that I make sure to visit every gallery and museum exhibitions of this material, to read every book, and to always be informed. Yesterday, we made our way to Jason Jacques Gallery to view the show ‘Das Werk: Rare Gustav Klimt Collotypes And Avant-Garde Austrian Art Pottery.' Jacques has made his name with impeccable taste and expertise in the art of ceramics, and with an unparalleled passion to the medium, focusing on both contemporary and vintage in his jeweled-box gallery, situated off Madison Avenue. For his summer exhibition, Jacques created a small, but wonderful show that combines prints by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt with Austrian art pottery of the same period. The prints, all taken from the portfolios of Klimt’s Das Werk series, which includes some of his most iconic masterpieces, were first created by Viennese Galerie Miethke and supervised by him, for the publication that came to distribute his work. You can find wonderful prints for less than a $1,000, and they are all beautifully set in frames modeled after those created by Klimt. They provide the perfect backdrop for a selection of Austrian ceramics from the turn of the 20th century, most of which were created at the ceramic workshop of Amphora, which was founded in Turn Teplitz, Austria in the 1890s and employed some of the best talents of the time. The exquisite pieces were designed in sophisticated Jugenstil forms, and some carry ornaments not unsimilar to the decoration used in Klimt’s prints. The exhibition on view through September 1st.
