Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (German: Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, colloquially die Bildende) is a public art university in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1692 as a private academy, it is one of the oldest art academies in Europe and currently the only Austrian university that does not include the word "university" in its name, having retained its original title when it gained university status in 1998. Located on Schillerplatz in Vienna's Innere Stadt district, the institution functions simultaneously as a centre for higher education in the visual arts and as a custodian of significant art collections, including one of the largest graphic arts holdings in Austria.

The academy was founded in 1692 by Peter Strudel, court and chamber painter to Emperor Leopold I, who modelled it on Rome's Accademia di San Luca. Strudel provided rooms in his own Strudelhof building for the institution. Emperor Joseph I subsequently promoted the academy, converting it into an imperial institute in 1704. Following Strudel's death in 1714, the academy temporarily ceased operations.

A refoundation came in 1725 when Emperor Charles VI appointed the Flemish-born painter Jacob van Schuppen as Prefect and Director, establishing the K.k. Hofakademie der Maler, Bildhauer und Baukunst (Imperial and Royal Court Academy of Painters, Sculptors and Architecture). The academy moved to the Schönbrunnerhaus in 1731, but after Charles VI's death in 1740 it again declined, eventually suspending classes. In 1751, under Empress Maria Theresa, the academy was revived with a rectoral constitution; Michelangelo Unterberger and Paul Troger served as early rectors, with Unterberger receiving the title "rector magnificus" from Maria Theresa in 1751.

The chancellor Wenzel Anton Kaunitz subsequently integrated Vienna's various art schools into the K.k. vereinigte Academie der bildenden Künste in 1772. The engraving school founded by Jakob Matthias Schmutzer in 1766 became particularly significant. The academy moved to the St. Annahof in 1786, where it began holding public art exhibitions.

A pivotal transformation occurred in 1872 when Emperor Franz Joseph I approved a statute making the academy the supreme government authority for the arts and granting it higher education status. The institution gained particular notoriety in 1907 and 1908 when a young Adolf Hitler was twice denied admission to the painting class by professor Christian Griepenkerl. During the Anschluss from 1938 to 1945, the academy was forced to purge Jewish staff and students under the Nuremberg Laws. After World War II, it was reconstituted in 1955 with restored autonomy.

The academy became a public university in 1998 while retaining its historic name. In 2009, student protests at the academy initiated broader Austrian student demonstrations. Eva Blimlinger became the first female rector in 2011, leading the first entirely female rectorate at an Austrian university. Johan Frederik Hartle has served as rector since October 2019, with his term extending until September 2027.

The academy maintains substantial art collections that originated from pedagogical purposes and grew through significant bequests. The collections encompass three principal holdings: the Gemäldegalerie (painting gallery) with more than 1,600 works; the Kupferstichkabinett (etching cabinet) with approximately 150,000 drawings and prints, making it one of the largest graphic art collections in Austria; and the Glyptothek, comprising roughly 450 historical plaster casts.

The painting collection's foundation dates to a late eighteenth-century decree requiring members to donate an example of their work to the academy. Its international stature was established in 1822 through the bequest of honorary member Anton Franz de Paula Graf Lamberg-Sprinzenstein, whose collection of 740 master paintings remains the backbone of the gallery. This bequest included works by Hieronymus Bosch, drawings by Rubens, and Dutch landscapes. A subsequent major donation from Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein added 58 Italian paintings. The gallery thus became Vienna's first public museum and remains the largest painting collection in Austria after the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

The Lamberg-Sprinzenstein bequest of 1822 remains the cornerstone of the painting collection, having elevated the gallery to international significance. Among its notable works are paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Paul Rubens drawings, and Dutch landscape paintings. The Liechtenstein donation subsequently enriched the Italian painting holdings. The Kupferstichkabinett, founded by Jacob Matthias Schmutzer in 1766, represents one of Austria's foremost collections of graphic art with its approximately 150,000 drawings and prints. The plaster cast collection in the Glyptothek preserves approximately 450 historical casts used for artistic instruction. Many treasures from the collections were destroyed by aerial bombardment during World War II.

The academy's present building on Schillerplatz in Vienna's first district was constructed between 1872 and 1876 to designs by Theophil von Hansen, who also directed the academy's architecture special school. The construction, approved by Franz Joseph I in connection with the Ringstraße development, cost 1,200,000 Gulden. The Neo-Renaissance structure, four storeys with raised projections, was ceremonially inaugurated on 3 April 1877 in the emperor's presence, though interior decoration, including Anselm Feuerbach's ceiling frescoes in the Aula, continued until 1892.

The building served as the academy's home from 1 April 1877. Otto Wagner proposed alternative designs for a new academy building on the Schmelz in 1898 and 1910, but these were never realised. Between 2017 and mid-2021, the main building underwent extensive renovation costing approximately 70 million euros, during which an underground depot for the Kupferstichkabinett was constructed beneath the courtyard.

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is located on Schillerplatz in the Innere Stadt, the central district of Vienna. As a public university, it currently enrolls approximately 900 students, nearly a quarter of whom are international students. The institution is divided into several institutes: Fine Arts (with thirteen departments including painting, sculpture, and media art); Art Theory and Cultural Studies; Conservation and Restoration; Natural Sciences and Technologies in Art; Secondary School Teaching Degrees; and Art and Architecture.

The collections, though primarily serving academic purposes, are partially accessible to the general public. The painting gallery and etching cabinet function as teaching collections with public access to portions of their holdings. The academy also maintains exhibition spaces including the Exhibit Galerie and Exhibit Studio for temporary exhibitions. The Semperdepot, assigned to the academy in 1995, serves as additional studio space. The institution's library holds approximately 110,000 volumes.