Remix

ALBERTINA MODERN, VIENNA

Jörg Immendorff's Café Deutschland, Georg Baselitz's Remix-paintings or Joseph Beuys's protest signs: The Viehof Collection is one of the most important private collections in Germany, whose focus is undoubtedly on the art of its own country, with a special focus on those artists who shaped the Rhineland and its art centers of Cologne and Düsseldorf as a nucleus of the avant-garde of international importance. 24 artist positions were selected for the major spring exhibition in order to present the development of German painting and sculpture after 1960. 

The show presents an overview of the depth of this collection: from Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke, who stand for the “cheeky”, socially critical art of the 1960s, to that of the 1980s, which was shaped by Martin Kippenberger, Albert Oehlen and Katharina Sieverding, to the field of figurative and abstract art of the 21st century, which is represented by works by Neo Rauch, Daniel Richter, Isa Genzken and Katharina Grosse.

It is a show of contrasts that presents itself at the ALBERTINA MODERN: Sigmar Polke, Jörg Immendorff and Georg Baselitz are placed in a pathetically expansive setting with numerous large formats, next to the conceptual works of Joseph Beuys and Rosemarie Trockel, while a few rooms further on the works of Anne Imhof and Katharina Grosse speak a completely different language.

At the same time, the exhibition is a dialogical presentation conceived from loans from the Viehof Collection paired with works from the Albertina collections. It is intended to make the most essential works from the Rhineland collection accessible to a broad Austrian public and to show how excellently the two collections interlock. In this way, the museum's own collection will also be reexamined and the approaches it contains will become more legible and visible.

In music, a remix is a new version of already composed pieces of music - the editing of original recordings in which the existing voices or soundtracks are remixed. This is also how our presentation is to be understood – the Viehof Collection and the ALBERTINA Museum's own contemporary collection are remixed here in order to highlight the strengths and topicality of both collections and bring contemporary art closer to our visitors in a multifaceted composed duet.

Although Remix – From Gerhard Richter to Katharina Grosse is the Viehof Collection's first major appearance in Austria, its relationship with the ALBERTINA Museum goes back a long way: individual, important works from the Viehof Collection have been on permanent loan to the ALBERTINA Museum since 2007. Building on this, an intensification of the collaboration in the form of a longterm cooperation has been agreed for the coming years, starting in 2025. Researching the Viehof Collection – its various works and artist positions – opens up two options for the ALBERTINA Museum: On the one hand, relevant works and groups of works by the names represented in both collections can be brought together, thus providing the public with a broad insight into their oeuvre. On the other hand, the complementary differences between the two collections can be seen in those artists who are not represented on both sides and also contribute to the expansion of the view of contemporary art.

Some of the artist positions that can be presented to the public for the first time through the Viehof Collection's holdings are still little known in Austria and have hardly been shown until now. For example, Corinne Wasmuht's large-format, brightly colored works, Nairy Baghramian's eccentric sculptures and Karin Kneffel's masterful,figurative paintings will have their own rooms dedicated to them.

On view from 11 April until 14 September 2025 at the ALBERTINA MODERN.