OTTO MEETS ALBERTINA

The ALBERTINA Museum, VIENNA

He is one of the most well-known comedy legends in the German-speaking world: Otto Waalkes. And he has played this role for a while. Generations have laughed about his wordplay and musical parodies. His legendary films, his unforgettable television appearances, his songs, and his verses have become an integral part of pop culture. For decades, he has also won the hearts of people—young and old alike—and cracked them up with his “Ottifants.”

His serious (?) artistic ambitions are less known. As a painter, he has made his iconic character roam art history. During his time in an artists’ housing co-op with Udo Lindenberg, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, and others, OTTO was a student at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. The ALBERTINA Museum and its collection have always fascinated him, and now OTTO has achieved his destination with an intervention in the Habsburg staterooms: on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of its founding, the museum has asked him to revisit and comment upon selected masterpieces from the Graphic Art Collection—for which he naturally pursues a tongue-in-cheek approach. Otto Waalkes thus encounters famous masterpieces owned by the ALBERTINA Museum—in a dialogue of a distinctly extra-Frisian nature.

OTTO Meets ALBERTINA invites you to rediscover the big names of art history through OTTO’s eyes: parodic appropriation as the sincerest form of homage.

The presentation is on view from 3 June 2026 until 10 January 2027.