ALBERTINA CONTEMPORARY

FROM GERHARD RICHTER TO MARIA LASSNIG

26 May 2012 - 19 August 2012

Georg Baselitz

Cookbook - on the Subject of “Syrups, Cocktails & Co”, 2008

Watercolour

Albertina, Vienna - The Batliner Collection

The current presentation of Albertina Contemporary shows a ‘best of’ selection of some 120 works from the Albertina’s extensive and continuously growing collections of contemporary art. The exhibition concentrates on Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Markus Lüpertz, Jörg Immendorff, and Alex Katz, as well as such great draughtsmen of the present day as William Kentridge, Robert Longo, and Raymond Pettibon. Moreover, the Austrian artists Arnulf Rainer and Maria Lassnig figure prominently in the show.

Ever since the foundation of the Albertina in 1776, the interest in the contemporary art production of the respective periods has lastingly been echoed in the museum’s new acquisitions. In continuation of this interest of the very first hour, which was already pursued by the collection’s initiator, Albert of Saxony-Teschen, both the museum’s collection and exhibition policies have corroborated the Albertina’s affinity for contemporary artwork on paper. Thus the display of the museum’s own holdings of contemporary art - a practice that offers insights into the most recent chapter of art history - is a core responsibility of the Albertina that is rooted in a long tradition.