Current blockbuster exhibitions in Vienna
Vienna’s major museums open their special exhibitions at the beginning of every fall season. The range of exhibits on display in Vienna is always extremely broad. This fall, many outstanding international works of art are making a guest appearance in Vienna, where they can be admired together with the extraordinary collections of Vienna's museums.
At the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien and the Albertina, fall's big specialty exhibitions mark the departure of the general directors who have spent decades shaping their museums.
Discover Vienna’s unique museum scene with this selection of current blockbuster exhibitions.
Rembrandt – Hoogstraten Colour and Illusion
October 8, 2024 - January 12, 2025, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
For the first time in its 133-year history, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (KHM) is dedicating a major special exhibition to the Dutch Baroque genius Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). More specifically, it presents the interaction between Rembrandt and his extremely talented student Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), who also spent several years in Vienna and enjoyed great success at the Habsburg imperial court. The exhibition focuses on the effects of color and illusionist techniques in the work of Rembrandt and Hoogstraten. It aims to demonstrate how the use of color creates a sense of space and virtual reality. The six Rembrandt paintings currently in the KHM collection will be accompanied by a wealth of Rembrandt loans never before presented in Austria. They are coming from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the National Gallery in London, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. There will be a total of 60 paintings and drawings on display. The large Rembrandt display is the last exhibition to be organized by general director Sabine Haag, who is leaving the KHM-Museumsverband at the end of the year following a 16-year tenure. She will be succeeded on January 1 by Jonathan Fine, who is currently the director of the Weltmuseum Wien.
Chagall
September 28, 2024 - February 9, 2025, Albertina
The Albertina is also preparing to bid farewell and make a change at the top. Ralph Gleis will take over the reins from Klaus Albrecht Schröder, who was general director of the Albertina for 25 years, at the beginning of the year. Schröder's final special exhibition is dedicated to the great master of the Russian avant-garde: Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Around 100 works of art from all creative phases reveal him to be an artist who explored the most original and universal themes of life. Born into an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic working-class family in what is now Belarus, the themes of birth, love and death became key aspects of Chagall's work. The exhibition also places a deliberate focus on war and horror. His fantastical and poetic imagery features animal motifs such as the cockerel, the donkey, the cow and the fish – time and again. In what is its third Chagall exhibition – in cooperation with the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf – the Albertina demonstrates that although Chagall´s work seems familiar, it continues to puzzle us.
Amoako Boafo. Proper Love
October 25, 2024 - January 12, 2025, Belvedere
The Belvedere is raising the bar for diversity in 2024 by presenting the contemporary Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo (*1984) in its magnificent baroque rooms, in what is the first exhibition of Boafo's work in Europe. The internationally renowned painter is considered one of the most prominent voices in contemporary black art. He depicts friends, acquaintances and people in public life in a unique way. Boafo comes full circle in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna from 2013, where he enjoyed some artistically formative years and developed his distinctive style, which includes the use of finger painting. His works also feature references to Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Alongside the exhibition in the lower part of the Baroque ensemble, the Belvedere integrates three of Boafo's works into the display collection in the upper palace in order to juxtapose them directly with works by Klimt and Schiele.
Gauguin. Unexpected
October 3, 2024 - January 19, 2025, Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien
This fall, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien hosts a major exhibition of Gauguin's work, the first in Austria since 1960. The exhibition follows Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) from his early days as a Post-Impressionist to his pioneering role as one of the fathers of modernism, and shows him as an artistic personality with a wealth of facets that has hardly been known in this country to date. There´s 80 works on loan from major international museums as well as important private collections, illustrating all facets of Gauguin's creative work: painting, graphics and sculpture. The exhibition showcases the Frenchman, who spent a lot of time in the South Seas, as an outstanding artist who influenced the generations that followed him. At the same time, the problematic figure of Gauguin and his attitudes are being scrutinized from the perspective of post-colonialist discourse and debates on sexism and abuse.
Don’t forget that you can find more information about current exhibitions and a summary of Vienna’s museums in the Museums & Exhibitions section of our website.
