Art with me! Vienna Main exhibitions of autumn 2025 in Vienna

Every year in autumn, the Austrian capital enters into a rhythm of reaffirming its status as one of Europe’s art capitals. From September to October, Vienna’s museums open the most ambitious art projects of the year in a roughly week-long rhythm. Autumn 2025 offers a particularly rich programme – from Impressionism and the occult to a gender-sensitive view of the Baroque and the dialogue between Modern and Gothic.

Hidden Modernity. The glamour of the occult

Leopold Museum
4 September 2025 – 18 January 2026
leopoldmuseum.org

The exhibition reveals a little-known but extremely important aspect of Austrian Modernism – its connection with mysticism, esoteric teachings and occult practices, which at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries penetrated all spheres of artistic life.

Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Alfred Kubin and other prominent artists of the time sought to transcend the visible world and find inspiration in the irrational, mysterious and sacred. The exhibition shows how spiritualism, astrology and other forms of occult practices influenced the aesthetics and content of these masters’ works.

This is a rare opportunity to see how the desire for the supernatural and the search for the metaphysical were expressed in the language of Viennese Modernism – subtle, decorative, and deeply symbolic.

Ferdinand Hodler, Blick ins Unendliche III, 1903/04 © Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. Erworben 1994, Foto: Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne //Richard Gerstl, Semi-Nude Self-Portrait, 1902/04, fragment, Photo by Julia Abramova in the exposition in the Leopold Museum, Vienna // Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, Apparition around 1890, oil on wood © Wikidedia Commons

Gothic Art Nouveau: Munch, Beckman, Kolwitz.

Albertina (Albertina Museum)
19 September 2025 – 11 January 2026
albertina.at

The exhibition explores the question of how deeply Modernist artists – from Munch to Kolvitz – were influenced by the aesthetics of Late Gothic art with its intense emotionality and mystical atmosphere. It is a unique visual juxtaposition that allows us to see the continuity of themes and forms from the fifteenth century to the early twentieth.

Fractured forms, dramatic lighting and an emphasis on human suffering are what both eras have in common and in this exhibition you can see the most striking images of each.

Arnold Böcklin: Selbstbildnis mit fiedelndem Tod, 1872, Öl auf Leinwand (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Alte Nationalgalerie). Foto: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Jörg P. Anders // Betende Frau [auch Betendes Mädchen], 1892, Bleistift, Tinte und Tusche auf Papier, Museum für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst, Straßburg // Albrecht Dürer: Betende Hände, 1508 Pinsel in Grau und Schwarz, grau laviert, mit Deckweiß gehöht, auf blau grundiertem Papier. Photo by Art with me in the Albertina, 2025

Cézanne, Monet, Renoir. French Impressionism from the Langmatt Museum

Lower Belvedere (Unteres Belvedere)
25 September 2025 – 8 February 2026
belvedere.at

For the first time in Vienna, masterpieces from the famous private collection of the Langmatt Villa, including works by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Pissarro, Corot and others. The Brown Collection is one of the earliest and at the same time most extensive private collections of French Impressionism. And beyond pure enjoyment, the exhibition offers a chance to trace how personal fascination reflects the changing self-image of the bourgeoisie of the time, and through them other people not previously involved in art.

Each work shows not only artistic progress, but also the cultural and social changes that the era was undergoing. This is a unique opportunity to see an outstanding collection of French Impressionism outside Switzerland and to touch paintings that rarely leave the confines of their home museum.

Claude Monet at the Belvedere Exhibition

Camille Corot, Ariccia with the Palazzo Chigi, 1826/27, Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland // Claude Monet, Ice Floes at Twilight, 1893, Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland // Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Braid, c. 1886/1887, Museum Langmatt, Stiftung Langmatt Sidney and Jenny Brown, Baden, Switzerland

Michalina Vauthier. Artist

Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum)
30 September 2025 – 22 February 2026
khm.at

The first Austrian exhibition of the still rather enigmatic artist Michaelina Vauthier reveals her as a powerful female voice in the Baroque era.

In the seventeenth century, being a woman artist was a real challenge and gaining recognition was an almost impossible task. Most women in art at that time were limited to portraits and still lifes. However, Michaelina Vauthier managed not only to go beyond these limits, but also to take her rightful place alongside masters such as Rubens and Van Dyck. The exhibition at the Museum of Art History gives viewers the opportunity to compare the paintings of these artists and reveals how an exceptional individual can overcome social and professional barriers to achieve recognition and become an important figure in the history of art.

This is not just the world’s first retrospective of the artist’s work, but a bold reinterpretation of art history through a new, post-feminist lens.

Marina Abramović: a performance retrospective

Albertina Modern
10 October 2025 – 1 March 2026
albertina.at

A retrospective of the works of Marina Abramović, a living classic of performance art, has been developed together with the artist and will present all the themes and periods of her work. The documentation of the performance, of course, gives only a faint idea of the original and you will not be able to feel the stench of decomposing meat that suffocated the audience of ‘Balkan Baroque’, nor even ‘just’ look into her eyes. But in the case of Abramović’s work, even the black and white newsreel creates an absolutely stunning effect of presence. And, as true art should, it changes the viewer forever.

Marina Abramovich performing “Artist is Present” at the MoMA in May 2010. Photo by Shelby Lessig, © Wikidedia Commons // Marina Abramovich “Balkan Baroque (Bones)”, the view of the exposition. Photo by Francesco Pierantoni © Wikidedia Commons