Walter Kasten

Walter Kasten (* 1902 in Halberstadt ; † 1984 in Linz ) was an Austrian curator and for many years director of the New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum .

Live and act

From 1947 Walter Kasten worked in the Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum as curator and deputy director of Wolfgang Gurlitt , whose closest collaborator he had already been during his time in Berlin. From 1957 (initially only provisionally for one year) to 1973 he headed the institution.

In 1951, as part of his work, he acknowledged the receipt of several works of art that could no longer be found at the time of the recovery by the heirs of the art collector Olga Jäger in 2006 and about which a legal dispute was being conducted with the city of Linz. In February 2018, one of these lost works of art reappeared. The Klimt drawing, Two Recumbents, was left behind by the secretary of Director Kasten (Gertrude Merl) who died at the end of 2017. The employee, who retired in 1977, had informed the gallery manager of irregularities in the documentation of loans. Walter Kasten then handed the work of art to his secretary and asked her to remain silent.

In 1953 he was one of the co-founders of the “Kulturring der Wirtschaft Oberösterreichs” and was its secretary for many years. In this capacity, he managed and looked after the Egon-Hofmann-Haus from 1957 . After his death in 1984 Erika Kasten (1907–2014) took on this task for several years.

He was a member of the artists' association MAERZ and made the premises of the Neue Galerie available again and again for their annual presentations until it was able to set up its own gallery in 1968.

Awards

• Professional title professor
• Culture Prize of the City of Kapfenberg , 1970

Publications

Kasten wrote and published a number of articles on the Upper Austrian art scene.

Upper Austrian cultural reports

• 20 years of the culture ring of Upper Austria's economy. In: Upper Austrian Culture Report , Volume 28 (1974), Volume 25

Linz active magazine

• Twenty years young. In: Linz aktiv , Heft 23, Linz, 1967, pp. 17–24
• Equally great as an artist as as a sponsor, for the memorial exhibition for Egon Hofmann in the Nordico City Museum . In: Linz aktiv No. 69, 1978, Impulse, pp. VII – X.
• Atelier for artists, exemplary patronage. A reminiscence on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the culture ring of Upper Austria's economy. In: Linz aktiv 73, Linz, 1979, pp. 51–56.
• How Oskar Kokoschka painted the Linz landscape. Oskar Kokoschka's contacts with the city of Linz and the resulting large collection of works by this artist. In: Linz aktiv , 76, Linz, 1980, pp. 55-64.

Art yearbook of the city of Linz

• Klimt , Klinger and Rahl in the New Gallery of the City of Linz. In: Art Yearbook of the City of Linz , No. 75, Linz, 1975, pp. 103-106.

Writings on exhibitions in the Neue Galerie, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum

• Herbert Dimmel on his 60th birthday , Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1954.
• Memorial exhibition of Hans Strigl (1897 to 1956). Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1957.
• Bruno Grimschitz . New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz, 1958, 2nd edition, Linz 1960.
• The blue rider and his circle. New Gallery of the City of Linz, Linz 1961.
• Paul Ikrath . New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1963.
• Renate Schwarzer . New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1963.
• Wilhelm Busch (1832 to 1908), paintings - drawings - picture stories. New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1967.
• Contemporary Turkish painting, graphics, sculpture, architecture. New Gallery, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz, 1967.
• Paths and experiments. New Gallery, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz, 1968.
• Constantin Brancusi, contemporary Romanian graphics, posters, photo documentation. New Gallery of the City of Linz, Linz 1968.
• Anton Mahringer. New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1970.
• Contemporary Venetian painting, graphics, plastic, kinetics, objects, glass and jewelery from Murano, Italian posters, Toscana in large photos. New gallery, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1970.
• Georg Wolfgang Chaimowicz, paintings, graphics. New Gallery of the City of Linz, Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum, Linz 1973.

further publications

• A feat in the service of art. The atelier of the culture ring of the economy in Linz. In: Old and Modern Art , Volume 2, Vienna, 1957, Issue 11, pp. 22–24.
• Alfred Kubin , his life and work. In: Lenzinger-Zellwolle-Zeitung , Volume 4, Lenzing, 1958, Issue 12, p. 16.
• Ten years of Neue Galerie Linz. In: Christliche Kunstblätter , year 96, 1958, issue 4, p. 29.
• Cultural Office of the City of Linz (Ed.): Egon Hofmann . With contributions by Walter Kasten and Hermann Friedl as well as a self-biography of the artist. Salzburg 1956.
• Egon Hofmann as a painter of the Mühlviertel. In: Upper Austria, Landscape, Culture, Economy, Tourism, Sport , Volume 7, 1957, pp. 33–38.
• Hans Hofmann-Ybbs, Walter Kasten. Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm 1964.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City has to pay 100,000 euros for a missing Schiele picture. In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten of October 27, 2011, retrieved on December 21, 2015.
2. ↑ Supreme Court judgment of July 11, 2016, GZ 5Ob65 / 16v
3. ↑ STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft mbH: Hidden in the closet: lost Klimt picture appeared in Linz . In: derStandard.at . ( derstandard.at [accessed on March 4, 2018]).
4. ^ Egon-Hofmann-Haus, history queried on December 22, 2015.
5. ↑ Entre.Sculptures - Artists' Association MAERZ Linz. ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Parnass's website , accessed on December 21, 2015