Vienna Media News 9-12/2020 New developments at Vienna’s museums

Reopening of the Sigmund Freud Museum

The Sigmund Freud Museum at Berggasse 19 reopened on August 29, 2020 after an 18-month renovation and expansion project (including a delay due to coronavirus). The cradle of psychoanalysis, and the place where the famous neurologist, psychoanalyst and thinker Sigmund Freud lived and worked for almost half a century, the museum has been modernised and extended to incorporate a foyer, shop and café. The museum is now wheelchair-accessible and features a newly designed research and communications platform: Europe’s largest library of psychoanalysis.

Three newly designed permanent exhibitions, an art show in the Berggasse 19 Schaurraum and a temporary exhibition explore Freud’s multi-layered legacy. Together, they look at his life and work, the theoretical and practical evolution of psychoanalysis and its impact on society and art. The history of the building at Berggasse 19, as well as the eventful lives of its inhabitants from 1880 to the present day provide another dimension.

Sigmund Freud Museum, Berggasse 19, 1090 Vienna, www.freud-museum.at

Major exhibitions in Vienna from fall 2020

Beethoven 2020 in Vienna

The Austrian capital became the creative centre for Ludwig van Beethoven and the setting for the majority of his premieres. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s birth. Various major exhibitions in the city are dedicated to the musical genius throughout the year.

Until Jan 10, 2021: Beethoven. World of the Man and Spark of the Gods Austrian National Library, Grand Hall, Hofburg, Josefsplatz 1, 1010 Vienna, www.onb.ac.at

Until January 30, 2022: The Triad of Viennese Classical Music: Haydn – Mozart – Beethoven. Similarities – Parallels – Opposites, Mozarthaus Vienna, Domgasse 5, 1010 Vienna, www.mozarthausvienna.at

Sep 29, 2020-Jan 24, 2021: Beethoven moves/Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Maria-Theresien-Platz, 1010 Vienna, www.khm.at, www.beethovenbewegt.at

Nov 27, 2020-Apr 4, 2021: Inspiration Beethoven. A Symphony in Pictures from Vienna 1900, Leopold Museum, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, www.leopoldmuseum.org

Sep 26, 2020-Jan 31, 2021. Andy Warhol Exhibits. A glittering alternative; Defrosting the Icebox. Hidden treasures from the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and the Weltmuseum Wien – in a guest appearance at the mumok.

In a pair of exhibitions – Andy Warhol Exhibits a glittering alternative, and Defrosting the Icebox, a homage to Warhol’s trailblazing project Raid The Icebox 1 with Andy Warhol – the mumok is providing an quintessential overview of the universal artist’s exhibition practices, without disregarding his early and late work.

mumok – museum of modern art ludwig foundation vienna, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, www.mumok.at

Oct 1, 2020-Feb 14, 2021: Gerhard Richter: Landscape / Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien is dedicating its major fall exhibition in 2020 to the artist Gerhard Richter, who has only rarely featured in the Austrian capital to date. Recognised internationally as the world’s most important living painter, Richter will be presenting a comprehensive retrospective of his landscapes at the Kunstforum.

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, Freyung 8, 1010 Vienna, www.kunstforumwien.at

Oct 15, 2020-Apr 13, 2021: Aztecs / Weltmuseum Wien

The Weltmuseum Wien will be presenting fabled Aztec art and culture (circa 1430-1521) in 2020. The show will focus on the sacrifices and offerings which played such an important part in the mercantile and religious lives of the Aztecs.

Weltmuseum Wien, Heldenplatz, 1010 Vienna, www.weltmuseumwien.at

Dec 2, 2020-Apr 5, 2021: Now: The Essl Collection / Albertina modern

This exhibition provides an overview of the Essl collection in Vienna for the first time, with 150 key works by some of the most famous artists from 1960 to the present day, including Antoni Tàpies, Erwin Wurm, Maria Lassnig, Georg Baselitz, Alex Katz, Per Kirkeby, Fang Lijun, Annette Messager, Andreas Gursky and Nam June Paik. The paintings, sculptures, objects, installations and videos featured in the exhibition give a clear picture of the variety of media covered by the Essl collection, which passed into the Albertina’s ownership in 2017.

Albertina modern, Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Vienna, www.albertina.at/albertina-modern

Jan 15-Jun 13, 2021: The Body Electric. Erwin Osen and Egon Schiele / Leopold Museum

The Body Electric presents the work of the little-known but highly mythologised artist Erwin Osen in the context of Viennese physician Stefan Jellinek’s electropathological research, and links it with Schiele’s interest in depicting patients. The hitherto unknown drawings created by Osen – who was a companion and model of Egon Schiele (1890-1918) and a co-signatory of the manifesto issued by Schiele’s Neukunstgruppe – expand and enrich our understanding of Viennese Modernism and its artistic practices, which were closely linked with clinical medicine.

Leopold Museum, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, www.leopoldmuseum.org

End of February-start of July 2021: Monet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin. Emil Bührle Collection / Leopold Museum

The Zurich-based industrialist Emil Bührle (1890-1956) compiled an eminent art collection. It focuses on French Impressionism and includes paintings by Manet, Degas, Renoir, Monet, van Gogh and Cézanne. The exhibition at the Leopold Museum showcases around 90 works from the collection, including masterpieces like Boy in a Red Vest by Paul Cézanne, Sower at Sunset by Vincent van Gogh and a water lily mural by Claude Monet.

Leopold Museum, MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Vienna, www.leopoldmuseum.org

Mar 4-Jun 13, 2021: Joseph Beuys / Belvedere 21

Beginning in the 1960s, Joseph Beuys developed new ways of thinking that still come across as contemporary to this day, owing to their complexity. The presentation at the Belvedere 21 also centres on the concepts of thinking, acting, and mediating. While the main work, Honey Pump at the Workplace, stands as a symbolic representation of Joseph Beuys' belief that social transformation can be achieved through art, Stag Monuments seemingly marks the new beginning of a shattered society. In addition, the exhibition covers some of his pieces and documentary treatment of his work in Vienna.

Belvedere 21, Arsenalstrasse 1, 1030 Vienna, www.belvedere.at

Mar 19-Aug 15, 2021: Xenia Hausner. True Lies / Albertina

This temporary exhibition at the Albertina presents one of the most important Austrian painters of our time. The main focus of the show is on the practice of staging, which is so characteristic of Xenia Hausner’s work. Conceived as a retrospective, beginning with Hausner’s initial works from the 1990s, the exhibition advances to include her moving recent series, the Exiles.

Albertina, Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna, www.albertina.at

Apr 21-Oct 3, 2021: The Women of Wiener Werkstätte / MAK

Until now, precious little attention has been paid to the women involved in Wiener Werkstätte (1903-1932). But this new exhibition at the MAK is set to change that: Gudrun Baudisch, Vally Wieselthier, Mathilde Flögl, Paula Lustig and Mizzi Vogl are just a handful of the almost 180 women who made a key contribution to the evolution of Viennese handcraftsmanship – thanks especially to their prolific creativity in the fields of commercial graphic design, textile design, fashion design, toys, wall decoration, and ceramics.

MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, www.mak.at

Jul 2-Oct 26, 2021: Lois Weinberger / Belvedere 21

The Tyrolean artist Lois Weinberger, who passed away in April 2020, had played a significant part in shaping artistic discourse around the relationship between nature and culture since the 1990s. A tug of war between ironic shamanism and quiet yet conceptual rigor, his works show the limits of human agency, revealing that our perceived superiority over the environment is an illusion. Before his death, Weinberger assembled a selection of works and texts from the last few decades for his second exhibition at the Belvedere 21, all of which will be shown in Vienna for the first time.

Belvedere 21, Arsenalstrasse 1, 1030 Vienna, www.belvedere.at

Sep 17, 2021-Jan 9, 2022: Modigliani – Picasso. Revolution of Primitivism / Albertina

The Albertina will honour Amedeo Modigliani with a major retrospective to mark the centenary of his death. For the first time, Modigliani will not be portrayed as a bohemian under the influence of alcohol and drugs, a pleasing portraitist and pioneer of art déco, but as a leading artist of the avant-garde who extended the revolution of primitivism far into the 20th century. Modigliani’s oeuvre will be juxtaposed with characteristic key works by such artists as Pablo Picasso, Constantin Brâncuşi, and André Derain, as well as artifacts from so-called “primitive” – prehistoric, archaic, and non-European – civilisations.

Albertina, Albertinaplatz 1, 1010 Vienna, www.albertina.at

Dec 15, 2021-Jun 19, 2022: Josef Hoffmann. Progress by Beauty / MAK

Marking the 150th anniversary of Josef Hoffmann’s (1870-1956) birth, this exhibition takes stock of the architect, designer, teacher and exhibition designer’s full portfolio for the first time. Hoffmann was one of the key representatives of Viennese Modernism and the international Life Reform movement. The exhibition provides a cross-section of his revolutionary designs and his most important buildings, including the Palais Stoclet in Brussels and Purkersdorf Sanatorium.

MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna, www.mak.at

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