250 YEARS

Open to Future

In 2026, the ALBERTINA Museum is celebrating 250 years of existence. This significant anniversary offers an opportunity to look back upon the eventful history of the collection and the institution itself as well as to look towards the future with optimism and enthusiasm – attitudes that have always been part of the ALBERTINA Museum’s self-conception. Much has already been written about the museum – but nowhere near everything has been said. What stories have yet to be told? What still awaits discovery? And how will the ALBERTINA Museum develop in the future?

Open to New Perspectivs

It is these questions that guide us through this anniversary year’s programming. Three main exhibitions with innovative approaches present the world-famous collection of the ALBERTINA from a new perspective, will usher rarely shown and entirely unknown objects into the spotlight alongside renewed scrutiny of known
artistic quantities. A “path of discovery” through the extensive collections of the ALBERTINA encourages visitors to the exhibition Fascination Paper to experience this tradition-steeped medium anew and interact with art from unaccustomed perspectives.

Reappraising the history of the ALBERTINA Museum also entails centering a female personality whose pivotal role in the collection’s founding is frequently overshadowed by that of her husband, Duke Albert of Sachse-Teschen: Archduchess Marie Christine. As the favorite daughter of Empress Maria Theresia, she endowed her marriage with the wealth that made possible such wide-ranging art acquisitions. She had also been active since her youth as an artist in her own right, by virtue of which she wielded important influence over the couple’s collecting pursuits. The Anniversary Exhibition Collecting for the Future devotes itself to this collecting history with a selection that will include precious works ranging from Dürer’s Hare to the expressive drawings of Egon Schiele.

A new view of the collection will also present the Women Artists of the ALBERTINA in a major autumn exhibition that unites so far insufficiently noted works by women artists in an epoch-spanning dialog. While it nearly goes without saying in contemporary art to pay attention to women artists when making new acquisitions, this question remains open to this day when it comes to the historical collection. Where are the women artists? What works might still lie hidden in one of the world’s largest collections? Who collected them? Here, an ongoing research project that will continue in the years to come has already produced some remarkable findings. The present anniversary year hence includes a glimpse into the state of this research and the fascinating diversity of art created by women.

Open to Innovation

With its gaze directed both back and ahead, the ALBERTINA Museum also seeks to have its anniversary-year programming show
how its self-conception is oriented toward not only yesterday and today but also toward tomorrow. Even for Albert and Marie Christine, continual enrichment of the collection with the contemporary art of their era had already been a central concern. This tradition has been upheld by the ALBERTINA Museum ever since,
as evidenced by its presentation of the most recent donations at its location in Klosterneuburg.

Open to All

The ALBERTINA Museum’s anniversary programming approaches change not as a break with tradition but as lively dialog between past and present. The museum conceives of itself as a place of continuous development – open to contemporary discourses, to innovation, to new ways of thinking, to the art of tomorrow, and
to the future. Alongside its exhibitions, the institution also runs a diverse range of educational offerings and event programming for all age groups that will include special highlights this year such as the Open Door events on the weekend of 4 July, the anniversary of the ALBERTINA’s founding.

Exhibitions in the Anniversary Year

Comprising over a million objects, it is one of the most important graphic art collections in the world and was founded 250 years ago: the ALBERTINA collection. What was once a private collection has become a world-class museum.

Discover our wide-ranging exhibition program in the anniversary year, accompanied by a varied program of educational activities and events:

ALBERTINA

• FASCINATION PAPER. Rembrandt to Kiefer
• LEIKO IKEMURA. Motherscape
• HONORÉ DAUMIER. Mirror of Society
• CARE MATTERS. An Exhibition of the VERBUND COLLECTION
• RICHARD PRINCE. Retrospective
• HELGA PHILIPP. Spaces of Motion
• COLLECTING FOR THE FUTURE. 250 Years of the ALBERTINA Museum
• TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
• BACON – PICASSO. What It Means to Be Human
• SHARA HUGHES
• KÜNSTLERINNEN DER ALBERTINA

ALBERTINA MODERN

• DANCE IMAGES
• KAWS. ART & COMIX
• VASARELY – ADRIAN. Moving Images
• FRANZ WEST
• DOWN UNDER. Art from Australia

ALBERTINA KLOSTERNEUBURG

• DONATED WITH LOVE

Anniversary program

New tour formats

Take a look!
German | English

Take a look is a short, entertaining slide show on selected works from the respective exhibition, offering a concise insight into the ideas and highlights. The 20-minute presentation is available in German and English and can be attended at any time without registration.

Details

In Focus
German

The educational format In Focus offers a concentrated examination of a selected topic. In 30 minutes, a single aspect is explored in depth. Depending on the date, the focus is on an artist, a style, a theme, or a specific work.

Details

___

Discover our entire program:

To the calendar