Woman in Gold

Based on a 2015 film directed by Simon Curtis

Theoretical Set Design for Yale MFA Application

2021

Woman in Gold is a story based on Maria Altmann’s quest to reclaim family paintings looted by the Nazis in Vienna. One of the paintings including Klimt’s renowned ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.’ Maria hired Randol Schoenberg, a fellow Austrian immigrant lawyer with a “no win, no fee” basis. For almost a decade long battle, the case was ruled by the Supreme Court of the United States—Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004). Eventually both Altmann and Austria agreed to arbitration in which the result favored Altmann. Her aunt Adele’s portrait painting known as the “Woman in Gold’’ was returned rightfully to her and is now displayed at the Neue Galerie in New York City.

Research on the story and settings

Preliminary scenes in isometric view

Klimt's live painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer

The Wedding

Nazi raid

Elisabethstrasse 18 Apartment

The first scene depicts Altmann’s minimalist L.A. home, where she recalls her late-sister’s attempts to regain the paintings. As she reaches out to Randol Schoenberg, Maria reminisces about her childhood home in Vienna. She remembers discussions of the avant-garde art movement and performances of chamber music. Not long after her high society wedding came the Nazi raid on the apartment.

1940s Apartment Exterior

The second scene shifts to the apartment’s hectic exterior which illustrates discriminatory acts against Jews. Striving to survive, Altmann and her husband successfully flee through the back door of a drug store in the opposite building. Time shifts again to the present, when Altmann and Schoenberg visit Vienna, and she recalls her painful past, intensifying her drive to fight for what is rightfully hers.

Present-day Vienna

Belvedere Museum

The pair pay a visit to the Belvedere Museum, where the painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer is displayed, surrounded by the museum’s distinctive arc-frame ceiling and chantilly parquet flooring.

Kunst Restitution Committee Panel

The third scene describes their legal battles, and features Schoenberg’s final speech at the Vienna International Arbitral panel. Their success is shown through the gradual disappearance of the massive stolen artwork parcels stored in a symmetrical Baroque-decorated interior. It represents hope, fulfillment, and justice, as belongings are returned to rightful owners.

Neue Galerie

The final scene hints at the painting’s current display at the Neue Galerie in New York City. It projects a dynamic sense of a bright future with an explosion of Klimt’s iconic shapes and colors, suggesting Schoenberg’s continued work to reclaim Nazi-looted art.