What is there
to see?

While the coronavirus has been haunting the whole world, the Albertina has opened its branch as planned: the Albertina Modern. And without really knowing it, we were among the first visitors in July 2020!

Everything was new and fresh, the exhibition spaces provided an open and exciting insight into contemporary art. But the “old” also glowed in all its splendour: for example, the beautiful, well-preserved staircase of the former Künstlerhaus, which was built between 1865 and 1868.

The Albertina Modern shows the history of art since 1945 in its temporary exhibitions and has amassed a huge collection of art in recent years: 60,000 works by 5,000 artists. The focus is – obviously – on Austrian art. However, there are also regular exhibitions on current trends, international artists (such as Ai Wei Wei, who we also visited) or genres.

During our first visit, the exhibition “The Beginning”, we came across many unknown Austrian names, but also more well-known ones such as Maria Lassnig. However, the fact that we didn’t see the biggest names here didn’t really detract from the whole experience: the works were interesting and overall, it was a pleasant walk through the new premises.

Our second visit was all about the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei – In Search of Humanity.

Of course, the collection also includes works by Baselitz, Kiefer, Lichtenstein, Immendorff and Wurm!