8 must-see exhibitions to make this your autumn of art in Vienna

Exploring what makes up beauty with famed designers, Sagmeister & Walsh

Explore the beautiful @ Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty @ MAK

When: October 23 – March 31
Where: MAK
Entry: €12, €5 each Tuesday after 6pm

This is an exhibition dedicated to beauty. Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh collaborate on this complex design exhibition to find the deeper meaning of beauty, analyse our relationship with it, and prove that beauty is not only ornamental, but beautifully designed objects automatically improve their purpose and functionality. Take this journey through product design, graphic design, architecture and urban planning and let yourself be challenged by the thought that beauty is not always in the eye of the beholder, but something that can be mastered and reproduced in a purposeful way. Find all the info, here.

A celebration of the West’s fascination in Japan during the 19th century

Faszination Japan: Monet · Van Gogh · Klimt @ Kunstforum

When: October 10 – January 20
Where: Kunstforum Wien
Entry: Adults €11, age 27 or younger €6

The exhibition at Kunstforum, “Faszination Japan,” explores the Western world’s fascination with Japan in the late 19th century.  This exhibition looks at how Japanese textiles and wood carvings emerged and changed the aesthetic of the Western world, as can be seen in the works of Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, and more. Their fascination with Japanese art seeped into their own work producing impressive results. Check out how cultures merged at the exhibition, “Faszination Japan.”

Claude Monet will be hanging around (get it?) at the Albertina until 2019

Claude Monet – The Big retrospective @ Albertina

When: September 21 – January 6
Where: Albertina

The largest Monet exhibition in Austria in more than 20 years is happening in the Albertina at the moment. If you want to get your own glimpse of the water lilies, this is your chance. This French Impressionist is considered a big deal and is loved in the art world for a reason, and for a limited time only, you can check out a big chunk of his work at this large retrospective happening at the Albertina. 

Exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum: 450th anniversary of Dutch grand artist

Bruegel – Once in a lifetime

When: October 2 – January 13
Where: Kunsthistorisches Museum 
Entry: €20

Bruegel, ‘the Elder’ as he was known, was a 16th century Dutch artist who arrived at a time of much socio–political and economic change in Europe. His drawings reflect the effect these massive changes had on normal day to day society in an almost cheeky and humorous way, while also highlighting the hardship of social conditions in a dark comedic, almost tragic, way.

With paintings as old as 450 years, it’s obvious that the fragile inventory rarely travels, so this makes it a very unique occasion to visit all these masterpieces in one place. The queues that formed up in the days following the opening prove that locals and tourists alike are eager to see Bruegel’s first ever major monograph exhibition.

100 years of Austrian history and politics in pictures

Photo/Politics/Austria @ MUMOK

When: Daily, until February 3rd
Where: MUMOK
Entry: 12/9€  (other deals available check here)

In this photo journey, you’ll find yourself following how all the above in the title developed in Austria from the year 1918 to the present day. The aim is to put the last 100 years of history into a visual format, using the MUMOK’s own collection, and they’ll be filling in the gaps with a few borrowed numbers from various Austrian institutes. It will surely teach you a thing or two about the modern history of this country and you won’t have to read a single boring fat history book that smells like your grandpa’s armpit.

Celebrating 100 years of Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele Jubiläumsschau @ Leopold museum

When: February 23 – November 4
Where: Leopold Museum
Entry: 13€ (9€ students)

Egon Schiele is a rock star in terms of modernist painters and his groupies are aplenty. And to honor one of the leading forces in the modernist movement, the Leopold Museum is currently presenting over 40 paintings and 180 works on paper by the very talented Austrian painter. This exhibition will tell the story of how the artist’s work developed, and how he was influenced by other great artists of this period. The museum’s founder, Rudolf Leopold, was a great admirer of Schiele’s radically expressive phase, so it’s more than apt that the gallery holds an exhibition in good old Egon’s name, especially as this year also marks the 100-year-anniversary of Schiele’s death.

Magnificent street photography out of New York

Helen Levitt @ Albertina

When: October 12 – January 27
Where: Albertina
Entry: 14€ (11€ yound adults under 26)

In case you haven’t heard of here, Helen Levitt was a street photographer who captured through the lens the heart of New York. By ‘heart’ we mean she ventured into Harlem, the Bronx, the Lower East side and captured pictures of the people and stories that occupied the streets of this buzzing city. And the result? Some poignant black and white photography that reveals a lot about the human spirit and struggle in this city.

© Photo courtesy of Helen Levitt

Stylised still life photography with poignant meaning 

Still Life @ Kunsthaus Wien

When: September 21 – January 6
Where: Kunsthaus Wien

It has always fascinated us how somebody can look at everyday objects, that our glance over on a daily basis, and take them, arrange them and make them into art. You can catch thew work of a range of people talented in doing this at the current exhibition at the Kunsthaus Wien called Still Life. So you can imagine what’s hung up in the walls after reading the title. Just imagine a bunch of the consumerist material things of today that we take for granted arranged into still life pictures like the old masters used to do with flowers and other objects.

© Photo courtesy of Eva Kelety