Vienna Künstlerhaus

The Vienna Künstlerhaus is a historic exhibition and performance venue in the Innere Stadt, Vienna's 1st district, located in the Ringstrassenzone between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz. Built between 1865 and 1868, it has served continuously as an exhibition space and event venue since its opening. The building is home to the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung, the oldest existing artists' association in Austria, and since 2020 also houses the Albertina Modern on its ground and underground floors. Its significance lies in its role as a cornerstone of Vienna's cultural infrastructure along the Ringstraße, its association with major developments in Austrian art history including the secession of the Vienna Secession, and its continuous adaptation to contemporary cultural needs.

The Künstlerhaus Vereinigung traces its origins to informal gatherings of artists in mid-19th-century Vienna. Artists initially met at the Gasthaus Dachelkeller am Neuen Markt, later moving to the Lothringer am Kohlmarkt and then to Zum Goldenen Lamm in the Naglergasse. When these proved inadequate, the group relocated to the suburb of Laimgrube (now part of Mariahilf), where architect Leopold Ernst constructed a Neo-Gothic festival hall in 1846-1847 at enormous cost. This became the meeting place of the Society of Young Artists and Academics, founded in 1851 and later renamed the Albrecht Dürer Society. In 1861, this society merged with another group called Eintracht to form the Genossenschaft der bildenden Künstler Wiens, a cooperative representing Viennese painters, sculptors and architects. The cooperative moved into its current premises in 1868. The building was opened on 1 September 1868 with the III. Allgemeinen Deutschen Kunstausstellung, and the society regarded itself as a local chapter of the Allgemeinen Deutschen Kunstgenossenschaft until 1912. In 1897, twenty progressive artists including Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich seceded from the Künstlerhaus to found the Vienna Secession, fundamentally altering the Austrian art world. The society opened membership to applied artists in 1972, was renamed Gesellschaft bildender Künstler Österreichs, Künstlerhaus in 1976, and admitted filmmakers and audio-visual artists from 1983. A limited company, Künstlerhaus-Ges. m. b. H., was founded in 1985 to organise exhibitions. In 2015, ownership was restructured with the Haselsteiner Familien-Privatstiftung becoming majority shareholder and the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung retaining minority ownership. A major renovation took place between autumn 2016 and spring 2020, during which the former Altmann'sche Textilfabrik in Vienna-Margareten (Stolberggasse 26) served as temporary accommodation. The refurbished building reopened on 6 March 2020, with Tanja Prušnik having become the association's first female president in June 2019.

The Künstlerhaus does not function as a traditional museum with a permanent collection in the conventional sense. Rather, its programme consists of temporary exhibitions presented by the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung on the upper floor of the building. The association's exhibitions historically served as sales exhibitions, with commissions from sales forming a principal revenue source alongside membership fees, entrance fees and catalogue sales. The annual exhibitions traditionally took place in spring, accompanied by so-called Permanenten Ausstellungen running from summer through the following year. The scope of exhibitions has evolved with the membership, expanding from fine arts to include applied arts from 1972, and film and audio-visual arts from 1983. Since 2020, the ground and underground floors have been occupied by the Albertina Modern, which presents its own independent exhibition programme, making the Künstlerhaus a shared venue for two distinct cultural institutions.

As an exhibition venue rather than a collecting institution, the Künstlerhaus does not maintain notable permanent holdings in the traditional museum sense. Its historical significance derives from the exhibitions it has hosted rather than objects it possesses. The "First International Art Exhibition in the Künstlerhaus" was held in 1882, and in March 1872 the building hosted one of the century's most important art sales, that of the Jakob Gsell collection. The XXV annual exhibition opened on 24 March 1897, shortly before the secession that would reshape Austrian art. The Gschnasfeste, elaborate masked balls with artistic decoration, humorous and satirical character, and alternating mottoes, were notable social events held at the Künstlerhaus, typically in February. These events inherited the society's strong tradition of conviviality dating back to its origins.

The Künstlerhaus building was designed by architect August Weber (1836-1903), who had previously constructed the Gartenbaugebäude on the Parkring in 1863-1864. Emperor Franz Joseph I laid the keystone. Constructed between 1865 and 1868, it was designed in the style of an Italian Renaissance villa after Jacopo Sansovino, and was one of the earliest buildings completed along the Ringstraße. At the time of construction, it stood beside the openly flowing Wien River. The stonework was executed by the Viennese firm Anton Wasserburger, using primarily stone from St. Margarethen, Wöllersdorf and Kaisersteinbruch. The building was significantly expanded in 1882 with the addition of two side wings, and the inner garden was roofed over in 1888. The western wing later housed a cinema from 1949, while the eastern wing contained a theatre from 1974, used by brut Wien until 2017 and also by the Wiener Festwochen. The building's relatively low-rise character made it subject to various redevelopment proposals over the decades, including the Kaym-Hetmanek Plan of the early 1930s for eight-storey apartment blocks, and Karl Schwanzer's 1966 proposal for IBM offices, both of which met with public opposition and were abandoned. The Stiftersaal room was modernised in 1956-1957. The 2016-2020 renovation comprehensively updated the building while preserving its historic character.

The Vienna Künstlerhaus is located in the Ringstrassenzone between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz, in Vienna's 1st district. Since its reopening on 6 March 2020 after major renovation, the building operates as a shared cultural venue. The Künstlerhaus Vereinigung presents its exhibitions on the upper floor, while the Albertina Modern, which opened on 27 May 2020, occupies the ground and underground floors. The building also contains the Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus in the western wing, which since September 2013 has served as one of the screening venues for the annual Viennale film festival, continuing the cinema tradition established in 1949. The building is owned by the Haselsteiner Familien-Privatstiftung as majority shareholder and the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung as minority shareholder, following the 2015 restructuring. The official website is https://www.k-haus.at/.