Until January 19, 2025, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien is presenting the blockbuster exhibition “Gauguin – unexpected”, the first comprehensive retrospective of Paul Gauguin in Austria since the 1960s. With around 80 works, the show makes the Breton influences – and thus the unexpected facets of the pioneer of modernism – visible with graphics, woodcuts, sculptures and his early work. The exhibition highlight also highlights his role as the author of numerous publications.
The exhibition year 2025, the director, invites you to new discoveries Ingried Brugger on February 15, 2025 with the show “Anton Corbijn – Favorite Darkness”. Visitors can look forward to impressive portraits of stars and Hollywood greats such as David Bowie, Jodie Foster, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Miles Davies or Nina Hagen be happy. From October 2, 2025, the exhibition center on the Freyung will be dedicated Marina Abramovićthe founder of modern performance, the first major retrospective in Austria.
“Both Marina Abramović and Anton Corbijn have never been seen to this extent in Austria. Both are a discovery because their work has been pushing the boundaries of what is known and setting new standards for over five decades. The exhibitions are created in close collaboration with the artist, which makes these extraordinary projects in Vienna all the more exciting and unique.”announces the director Ingried Brugger an.
Vienna-Berlin: Cooperation with the Helmut Newton Foundation
In late summer, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna will continue its collaboration with the Berlin Helmut Newton Foundation. In the exhibition “Dialogues. Collection Fotografis x Helmut Newton”, masterful historical photographs from the Fotografis collection will be on display in the German capital from September 6, 2025 to February 15, 2026. The show combines the works with photographs in a fascinating juxtaposition Helmut Newtons from their own archive. The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien’s collection of photographs, comprising more than 400 photographs, is one of the outstanding international photo collections. It ranges from the pioneering period of the medium in the 19th century to pictorialism and straight photography to experimental works of the avant-garde of the 20th century and contemporary photographs. The show in Berlin marks the start of a series of presentations of the Fotografis collection in various formats.
tresor in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna: exhibition space for contemporary art
Unexpected things can also be seen in the tresor in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna. Under the title “The Water Cabinet” the artist duo questions Markus Hanakam and Roswitha Schullerfrom February 27th to March 30th, 2025, regulations of the visual arts. The Viennese artist Anneliese Schrenk will show a selection of her current works in the exhibition space for contemporary art from May 8th to June 29th, 2025. A major theme that could not be more relevant can be identified in her oeuvre over the decades: respect for and for life and our common existence.
“Anton Corbijn – Favorite Darkness”: February 15 to June 29, 2025
The 2025 spring exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna is dedicated to an artist who works across media with photography, film and design and has significantly shaped the way we have received pop culture since the 1970s: Anton Corbijn. Over the course of his international career, which has spanned over five decades, countless iconic, mostly black and white portraits of artists from music, film, literature, art and fashion have been created, which are the focus of the exhibition, which is taking place around the artist’s 70th birthday. form.
However, to reduce Cobijn’s artistic work solely to his photography would be far too short-sighted: starting from his early pictures of Joy Division and his time with the “New Musical Express” (NME) in London in the early 1980s, the exhibition unfolds a tour d ‘Horizon through photographic portraits, music videos, album designs and on-stage visuals that he created for Depeche Mode, for example, to lesser-known ones, some of them up to now unseen photographs and a final room with portraits of visual artists, many of whom have already exhibited their work at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna. The central aim of the exhibition is to highlight connections between Corbijn’s photographic and film work and art history – which may also explain why his works often appear familiar and accessible to the audience.
Corbijn has also been working very successfully as a filmmaker for many years. As part of the exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna, the Vienna Gartenbaukino is showing a retrospective of Corbijn’s film work.
“Marina Abramović”: October 2, 2025 to January 18, 2026
Marina Abramović (born in Belgrade in 1946) is one of the most important contemporary artists. She is considered the founder of modern performance and has written art history with her legendary performances. Starting in Belgrade in the early 1970s, she established performance as a form of visual art over the course of her career spanning more than 50 years. As early as 1978 she appeared (at the International Performance Festival) in Vienna.
The exhibition will offer a comprehensive overview of the artist’s work. The focus of the presentation at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna will be re-enactments of the historical performances on a daily basis throughout the entire duration. Performance art has a long tradition in Vienna, with actionism being the best-known form. For the retrospective, the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien will work with the artist to set up rooms, each dedicated to a theme such as participation, communism, body boundaries, energy from nature or enlightenment.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Kunsthaus Zurich and the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna.
Further information on kunstforumwien.at. The Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien invites you to visit the exhibition virtually around the clock and from any device Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.