250 YEARS

THE ALBERTINA MUSEUM

Until 31 December 2026

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.

    View of the Palais of Duke Albert in Vienna, neoclassical façade surrounded by garden, watercolor on paper.
    Jakob Alt | Das Palais Herzog Alberts, 1816 | © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna

    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.

      Exterior view of the Albertina from the front.
      The ALBERTINA Museum today © The ALBERTINA Museum, Vienna | Photo: Harald Eisenberger

      Das Programm im Jubiläumsjahr

      Sie umfasst über eine Million Objekte, zählt zu den bedeutendsten grafischen Sammlungen der Welt und wurde vor 250 Jahren gegründet: Die Sammlung der ALBERTINA. Aus der einstmals privaten Sammlung wurde ein Museum von Weltrang.

      Entdecken Sie unser breitgefächertes Ausstellungsprogramm im Jubiläumsjahr begleitet von einem vielseitigen Vermittlungs- und Veranstaltungsprogramm:

      ALBERTINA

      ALBERTINA MODERN

      ALBERTINA KLOSTERNEUBURG

         
        • Annual Partner
          Bank Austria UniCredit
        • Annual Partner
          Verbund
        • Partner
          BMW