IF_DO was responsible for the design of the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition ‘Klimt/Schiele: Drawings from the Albertina collection’. The design drew inspiration from both secessionist architecture and early twentieth century Viennese ‘Kunst Ausstellung’ (art exhibitions). Exhibition display and design during this period often played with a sense of the domestic, featuring decorative frescos and carefully placed items of furniture. 

Echoing the friezes of the Kunst Ausstellung, textured paint was applied to the gallery walls to foreshorten the ceiling height and create the effect of a more intimate domestic setting within the spaces. Elegant cherry wood and brass showcases were designed for the display of sketchbooks and secessionist pamphlets, and borrow from the language of Austrian furniture of the period. At the heart of the exhibition, a dramatic monolithic wall disrupts the flow of the exhibition echoing the discomfort in the works made by Schiele during his imprisonment in 1912.

2018 marked the centenary of the deaths of both Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) and Egon Schiele (1890-1918), two of the most celebrated and pioneering figures of early twentieth century art. Klimt/Schiele was the first exhibition in the UK to focus on the fundamental importance of drawing to both artists. Both Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele revelled in the immediacy of drawing, exploring new ideas of modernity, subjectivity and the erotic. The exhibition comprised over 100 unique works on paper including portraits and self portraits, studies for allegorical paintings, landscapes and erotic nudes.

“An edgy, boundary-pushing allure… Unmissable.” The Telegraph

“it’s all so intense, so beautiful, so powerful, so intimate. It’s an amazing show to lose yourself in” Time Out