Wotruba international: a special exhibition at Belvedere 21

From July 17, 2025 to January 11, 2026, the Belvedere 21 will present the exhibition “Wotruba international”, curated by Verena Gamper and art historian Gabriele Stöger-Spevak. While Wotruba’s oeuvre has so far mainly been viewed monographically or with a focus on his influence on subsequent generations, this exhibition will concentrate on his involvement in international exhibitions, his network and the broader reception of his sculptures. Using selected sculptures by Wotruba and notable works by contemporaries such as Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Armitage and Isamu Noguchi, these historical encounters are taken as a starting point to address fundamental questions of sculpture in the period after 1945.

A museum of modern art for Vienna

After the Second World War, Fritz Wotruba was firmly committed to promoting the cultural recovery of his home city of Vienna. In 1962, his long-standing cultural and political demand for a museum of modern art in Vienna was fulfilled. The Austria Pavilion created by Karl Schwanzer for the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels was transferred to Vienna, adapted for museum purposes and opened as the Museum of the 20th Century (today’s Belvedere 21). 

In 2011, Fritz Wotruba’s estate was loaned to the Belvedere by the Fritz Wotruba Private Foundation. Wotruba im 21er Haus, now known as Wotruba im Belvedere 21, was opened and the estate found a permanent home in the specially created Wotruba Depot. Following the liquidation of the Fritz Wotruba Private Foundation in 2021, the estate was passed to the Belvedere 21. The collection includes 500 stone sculptures, bronze sculptures and plaster models, as well as 2,500 drawings and 1,500 prints, the artist’s written estate and an extensive photographic archive. Special tours of the Wotruba Depot round off the anniversary program.

Wotruba Church – pure brutalism

The Church of the Most Holy Trinity on the Georgenberg in the southern part of Vienna-Mauer is one of the most imposing and extraordinary sacred buildings in Vienna and at the same time a milestone in Austrian architectural art. This church was Fritz Wotruba’s last major project. It remains one of the most important works of Brutalism in Austria to this day. 135 irregularly arranged cubic blocks of poured concrete weighing a total of 4,000 tons rise into the sky like a sculpture and create a unique church building. Wotruba had been intensively involved in the planning of this church since the mid-1960s and vehemently campaigned for the construction of the controversial design despite considerable opposition. It was not until 1974 that construction began based on the plans drawn up jointly by Fritz Wotruba and architect Fritz Gerhard Mayr.

The human being at the center

The central theme of Wotruba’s art was the human being, especially the human body. He created some monumental, even larger-than-life nude figures, which he chiseled directly from the block using a pencil or pen sketch. He produced block-like figures made up of cubes, cuboids and cylinders, which were replaced by column and pillar figures in the late 1950s. 

Immediately after the end of the Second World War, Wotruba – through the mediation of his friend, the painter Herbert Boeckl – took over as head of the Master Class in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna at the age of just 39. Many notable artists emerged from his class, known as the “Wotruba School”, including Alfred Hrdlička, Wander Bertoni, Heinz Leinfellner, Josef Pillhofer, Roland Göschl, Andreas Urteil, Annemarie and Joannis Avramidis, Oskar Höfinger and Oskar Bottoli. 
Alongside his professorship and his extensive international exhibition activities, Wotruba managed the renowned Galerie Würthle in Vienna’s city center from 1953. The owner of the gallery was his friend, the Swiss art collector Fritz Kamm. Together with Kamm, Wotruba positioned the gallery as a venue for Austrian contemporary art and Viennese and international modernism.

Addresses: 

• Wotruba international www.belvedere.at/wotruba-international 
• Guided tours www.belvedere.at/veranstaltung/fritz-wotruba-leben-und-werk
• Belvedere 21, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Wien, www.belvedere.at
• Wotrubakirche, Ottillingerplatz 1, Georgsgasse/Rysergasse 
  1230 Wien, www.georgenberg.at

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Contact

Helena Steinhart
Media Relations
+43 1 211 14-364
helena.steinhart@vienna.info