Colorful tiles on the roof of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

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Vienna Media News 03/2021 A New Art Museum Hotspot for Vienna

Work to convert the Stöckl building – a venerable old Palais in the old town nestled between the Vienna State Opera, Albertina and Burggarten – started in summer 2020. From 2022, visitors can view the exhibits from this unusual collection on around 1,500 square meters of exhibition space spread across three floors and extending into the courtyard. Patron of the arts Heidi Goëss-Horten will be putting hundreds of the masterpieces she has collected over the years on permanent display to the public.

She was inspired to do so by the success of the Wow! exhibition at Vienna’s Leopold Museum in 2018, which featured some of the highlights of her collection. “There is clearly a great deal of public interest and curiosity regarding the collection which spans 100 years of art history – the likes of which cannot be found in any other Austrian museum at anywhere near this scale. I want to encourage this interest, particularly among young people,” Goëss-Horten explained.

Now 80 years of age, she started building her impressive collection – which takes in a broad swathe of international art from early modernism to the present day – in the early 1990s. Masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter are among the stand-out pieces.

International gems and the Viennese Gründerzeit

The exhibits will be presented in the Stöckl building, a classic example of late 19th century architecture built in 1862, which has pride of place in one of the larger courtyards of the Hanuschhof complex. No stranger to art and culture, the building has hosted various institutions over the years, most recently the State Opera House Museum. It is currently undergoing extensive renovations readying it for its new lease on life as a museum of modern art.

In addition to completely gutting the main structure, workers are adding a new below-ground level. Despite some changes such as the introduction of a greening program, the painstaking restoration will ensure that the facade does not lose any of its historicist charm. Special highlights of the new museum complex include two terraces and a freestanding steel staircase inside.

Holistic museum approach

The new art museum, which bears the design signature of the next ENTERprise architects studio, will be managed by Goëss-Horten’s long-time adviser Agnes Husslein-Arco. “In a holistic museum approach, we will also hold small special exhibitions or invite contemporary artists to talk about the collection. So there will be a lively discourse with the visitors,” the designated director explained, sharing an early insight into the proposed blueprint for the museum.

Contact

Vienna Tourist Board
Helena Hartlauer
Media Relations
Tel. (+ 43 1) 211 14-364