Künstlerhaus & Albertina Modern
Why is it significant?
Here is the enemy. Or at least, that is how Klimt and his friends saw it in 1897. In front of you rises a dignified palace in the style of the Italian Renaissance, with arched windows, a broad staircase and the solid confidence of an institution that knows it matters.
Key Facts
| Place | Künstlerhaus & Albertina Modern |
|---|---|
| Address | Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20090, 16.37220 |
| Part of Walk | Gold, Rebels and The Kiss: Vienna from the Secession to the Belvedere |
| Generated | Generated |
Here is the enemy. Or at least, that is how Klimt and his friends saw it in 1897. In front of you rises a dignified palace in the style of the Italian Renaissance, with arched windows, a broad staircase and the solid confidence of an institution that knows it matters.
This is the Künstlerhaus, the House of Artists, completed in 1868 for the society of Viennese painters, sculptors and architects. For thirty years it was the place an artist in Vienna had to be shown. It held the great annual exhibitions, it decided who was in and who was out, and it sold a lot of pictures. Its star in the 1870s was Hans Makart, the painter whose enormous canvases and plush studio set the taste of a whole generation, so much so that the Viennese spoke of a Makart style in furniture and even in hats.
The young Klimt was a member here, and successful. But in the 1890s the rules started to choke the younger artists: foreign modernists were kept out, juries favoured safe, saleable work, and the old guard held every key. In 1897 Klimt and his friends resigned and founded the Secession. What started as a quarrel between colleagues became one of the founding moments of modern art in Central Europe.
And history has a sense of humour. The house the rebels walked out of now belongs, in part, to the art they fought for. After a long restoration it reopened in 2020 as the Albertina Modern, a museum for art from the second half of the twentieth century to today. The grand old exhibition halls of the establishment now show the radicals of later generations.
Glance to the right before you leave. The building next door, with the terracotta coloured walls, is the Musikverein, home of the famous New Year's Concert, so on a winter evening this corner is full of people in evening dress. Now turn south across the park towards the great green dome with two columns that you cannot miss.