Erika Giovanna Klien

1900 Borgo di Valsugana - 1957 New York

  • Title The Movement of a Head
  • Date 1923
  • Technic pencil and graphite on paper
  • Dimensions 39.1 x 25.7 cm
  • Signature dated and signed lower left: 1923/ / ERIKA / GIOVANNA / KLIEN verso titled and dated: Die Bewegung / eines Kopfes / 1923 verso numbered: 63337_1 as well as designated by third hand: EriKa / Klien
  • Provenance from the estate of the artist; collection Michael Pabst; private collection, Germany
  • Literature cf. Marietta Mautner Markhof, Erika Giovanna Klien 1900 - 1957, exhibition catalogue Museum moderner Kunst Wien, Vienna 1987, p. 108, ill. 60 Sylvia Kovacek GmbH (ed.) Erika Giovanna Klien. Wiener Kinetismus. Vienna 2022, p. 34f., ill. 5
Artist overview Inquire price

Between 1921 and 1923 Erika Giovanna Klien created several artworks with the subject of dancing, putting the focus in the movements and expression of hands and eyes. The featured drawing is a great example of those works. Drawing was Klien's favored medium, which was most suitable for the splitting and breaking forms and movements. She only did very few works in oil, mostly during her time in Austria. This might also be due to the fact that she ultimately didn't choose a career as painter, she rather wanted to study form in a pedagogical sense. As a woman in a male domianted society drawing might also have been her retreat, where she could more freely experiment, without being caught in the middle of public gender discussions. In the featured drawing one might assume the figure bears likeness to the artists' face, being an examination of herself. A figure being in a state of development. It rises from the lower edge of the sheet, in contemplation and then turning to look the viewer in the eye, afterwards turning their head upwards, desolving itself in catharsis. Maybe it is a sort of self reflection, following the teachings of her professor Franz Cizek. Those subjects showcase the virtuosity with which she combines her art, her personality and biography.

original german text by Daniel Pabst