Klemens Brosch Exhibition at Belvedere Vienna

The Belvedere in Vienna presents a retrospective of Klemens Brosch (1894-1926), an Austrian draftsman whose visionary work remained independent of early 20th-century movements. Brosch, a precocious talent from Linz, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but never joined Expressionism or the Secession. His ink drawings blend meticulous natural observation with dreamlike, unsettling atmospheres, influenced by Max Klinger, Arnold Böcklin, and Japanese ukiyo-e artists like Hiroshige and Hokusai. Conscripted in August 1914, he served only fifty days before a lung disease led to morphine addiction, which exacerbated his introversion and anguish. The war's horrors, including his brother Franz's death, inspired two years of grotesque, Goya-esque battle scenes. Post-war disillusionment and addiction drove him to psychiatric clinics, yet he produced increasingly hallucinatory works. Shortly before his suicide, he completed two masterpieces: "Dinosauri rossi," a metaphor for human evil, and "Osservatorio spaziale" (1926), a prophetic, cinematic vision of space exploration. The exhibition runs until June 3, 2018, at Belvedere, Prinz Eugen Strasse 27.