International Symposium | Modernism meets Gothic
GOTHIC MODERN. MUNCH - BECKMANN - KOLLWITZ
Friday, 19 September, 2025 | 10 am – 6 pm
State Rooms, Audience Hall
Access via Main Entrance
Language: English
Free Entry | Registration required
On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition Gothic Modern. Munch, Beckmann, Kollwitz, the Albertina Museum, in cooperation with the Department of Art History at the University of Vienna, is hosting an international symposium on 19 September 2025. The event aims to highlight the close interconnection between academic and curatorial research that shaped the exhibition.
In its major autumn exhibition, the Albertina Museum has set out to stage a highly charged encounter between Modernism and Gothic art. The spotlight here is on masterpieces ranging from symbolism to expressionism that take inspiration from medieval art’s emotional power. Gothic Modern demonstrates how artists’ recourse to art created prior to the rise of the academic tradition enabled them to forge new creative paths. In doing so, major works by modern artists created between 1875 and 1925 will be placed in direct confrontation with iconic paintings, prints, and sculptures by Old Masters. In this extraordinary juxtaposition of artistic eras, Gothic Modern reveals how modernism was less a fundamental break with the past than it was a movement in which purposeful engagement with the art of the late Middle Ages played a vital role.
The exhibition stems from an international research project led by Prof. Dr. Juliet Simpson (Coventry University) in partnership with Dr. Anna-Maria Bonsdorff (Director, Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki), Vibeke Waallann Hansen (Senior Curator, the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo) and Dr. Ralph Gleis (Director General, The Albertina Museum, Vienna).
As part of the symposium, both the project contributors and internationally renowned experts—whose research has focused extensively on the intersections between Gothic and Modernism—will present new perspectives on the theme of Gothic Modern. The lectures offer fascinating insights into current scholarly work and open up surprising new angles on the often-overlooked connections between medieval visual language and modern art.
Organized by the Albertina Museum in collaboration with the Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna.
PROGRAM
- Dr. Ralph Gleis (Director General, The Albertina Museum, Vienna)
- Univ.-Prof. Assaf Pinkus, PhD (Professor for Medieval Studies, Institute of Art History, University of Vienna)
10 - 10.30 | Welcome and Introduction
10.30 - 13 | First Panel | Moderation Lydia Eder
- 10.30 – 11.15 | Prof. Dr. Juliet Simpson (Professor of Art History, Coventry University)
Reimagining Gothic
What is Gothic Modern? - 11.30-12 | Dr. Anna-Maria Bonsdorff (Director Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki)
A Modern Dance of Death - 12.15 – 12.45 | Dr. Marja Lahelma (Chief Curator, Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki)
Myth, Spirituality, and Death
Finnish Artists’ Engagement with the Gothic Modern
13 – 14 | Lunch Break
14 - 16.30 | Second Panel: Moderation Juliet Simpson
- 14.15 – 14.45 | Cynthia Osiecki, MA (Curator of Old Master Paintings, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo)
The Art Historian Curt Glaser and the Debate on the Spirit of Early German Art - 15 – 15.30 | Stephan Kemperdick (Curator for German, Netherlandish, and French Paintings before 1600, Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Max Beckmann’s Gothic
Modernism, the Zeitgeist, and Early German Art - 15.45 – 16.15 | Vibeke Waallann Hansen, MA (Senior Curator, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo)
The Cathedral as Model
Edvard Munch and the Gothic
16.30 – 16.45 | Coffee Break
16.45 - 17.15 | Third Panel | Moderation Juliet Simpson
- Prof. Dr. Magdalena Bushart (Head of the Department of Art History, Technical University, Berlin)
Divergent Gothic Concepts of Modernism
