{"id":10023319,"date":"2026-02-12T14:23:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/vienna-1900-the-dawn-of-modernity\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:42:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:42:24","slug":"art-vienna-1900-exhibition-leopold-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/art-vienna-1900-exhibition-leopold-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Vienna 1900 \u2013 Birth of Modernism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long shaped by imperial splendour and the opulent legacy of the fin de si\u00e8cle, Vienna is currently experiencing a renewed relevance within creative circles. Particularly compelling is the modern, dynamic spirit of the turn of the twentieth century. With its permanent exhibition \u00bbVienna 1900\u2014Birth of Modernism,<\/a>\u00ab the Leopold Museum highlights the striking contemporary resonance of this period in the city\u2019s art and design history\u2014a facet that is receiving increasing attention today, beyond any sense of historical weightiness.<\/p>\n

Since its opening in 2001, the Leopold Museum<\/em> has played a pivotal role in bringing the forward-looking, experimental spirit of Vienna\u2019s turn of the century to life\u2014not as a singular, archived moment consigned to the past, but as an enduring cultural point of reference<\/a>. Founded by the Austrian art collector, ophthalmologist, and patron Rudolf Leopold (1925\u20132010), the museum remains consistently devoted to the art and culture of around 1900. With its extensive collection\u2014including major works by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Oskar Kokoschka\u2014it has established itself as one of the leading institutions dedicated to the presentation of Viennese Modernism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Lisa Rastl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By continually reimagining its permanent exhibition, \u00bbVienna 1900\u2014Birth of Modernism,\u00ab the museum repeatedly succeeds in framing the aesthetic, social, and design impulses of the era within a contemporary context, offering ever-new perspectives. On display are masterpieces from the Leopold Museum<\/em>\u2019s collection alongside significant national and international long-term loans, through which the radical energy of the past resonates and the emergence of modernity around 1900 appears remarkably relevant today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Exhibition
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Lisa Rastl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"KOLOMAN
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna\/ Manfred Thumberger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Armchair for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium by Koloman Moser;
\nExecuted by: Prag-Rudniker, workshop: Jakob Soulek (carpenter), 1903<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How this formative turning point found expression is explored in the exhibition catalogue, which characterizes the heterogeneous milieu of the Danube metropolis as a \u00bbcentral engine of a turbulent movement of renewal\u00ab\u2014one that created fertile ground for an extraordinary concentration of cultural achievement. Names such as Klimt, Freud, and Loos have long stood, requiring little explanation, as synonymous with groundbreaking innovations across a wide spectrum of modern disciplines. Vienna\u2019s multilayered identity, shaped by movements such as the Secession<\/a> and the Wiener Werkst\u00e4tte, continues to inform contemporary debates on craftsmanship, materiality, and the role of art in society.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"MORIZ
\u00a9 Imagno Brandst\u00e4tter Images Photo: Austrian Archives\/Imagno\/picturedesk.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The world-famous group portrait of the artists participating in the 14th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession, including Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann and Carl Moll, photographed by Moriz N\u00e4hr, 1902<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"GUSTAV
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna\/ Manfred Thumberger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00bbVer Sacrum. Theseus and Minotaur.\u00ab \u2014 poster by Gustav Klimt for the 1st Art Exhibition of the Association of Austrian Artists, Secession. Condition before censorship, 1898<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The applied arts played a central role in realizing the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk\u2014a term denoting the aspiration to infuse all areas of life with art, which in the age of social media might most closely correspond to the overused word \u00bbcurate\u00ab. The distinction, however, lies in the ambition to create an aesthetically and conceptually self-contained whole, one that transcends dull replicability and fleeting immediacy\u2014the logic of the \u00bbcopy-and-paste-taste\u00ab.<\/p>\n

\"Exhibition
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Lisa Rastl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this context, the attentive and discerning eye will have noticed that the \u00bbHoffmann Chair\u00ab\u2014a label commonly applied regardless of the specific model\u2014has, in many a carefully curated feed, been reduced to a conspicuously deployed prop, intended to signal stylistic confidence, mask mediocrity, and assert distinction \u00bbfrom the rest\u00ab. Yet it is worth noting, positively, that furniture from the turn of the century continues to strike a chord today, capable of evoking the atmosphere of that vibrant era\u2014which is precisely where the exhibition\u2019s true strength resides.<\/p>\n

\"Exhibition
\u00a9 Leopold Museum, Vienna Photo: Lisa Rastl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00bbVienna 1900\u2014Birth of Modernism\u00ab lays bare the foundations from which many of today\u2019s trends and debates first emerged. Rather than concentrating on singular iconic figures, the presentation opens up a perspective on the complexity of an era in transition, whose energy continues to resonate to this day.<\/p>\n

In keeping with this understanding of modernity as an enduring impulse that extends beyond Vienna, the Leopold Museum is also presenting a comprehensive retrospective, \u00bbGUSTAVE COURBET\u2014Realist and Rebel<\/a>\u00ab (19.02.2026\u201421.06.2026). With Courbet, the focus shifts to an artist who\u2014much like the protagonists of Vienna\u2019s turn of the century\u2014challenged conventions and insisted upon artistic autonomy. The exhibition thus consistently aligns with the museum\u2019s programmatic aim of revealing moments of upheaval in art history as living, ongoing impulses. [Ed.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism
\n560 pages 23.5 x 28 cm
\n1000 illustrations
\nleopoldmuseum.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\"catalogue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long shaped by imperial splendour and the opulent legacy of the fin de si\u00e8cle, Vienna is currently experiencing a renewed relevance within creative circles. Particularly compelling is the modern, dynamic spirit of the turn of the twentieth century. With its permanent exhibition \u00bbVienna 1900\u2014Birth of Modernism,\u00ab the Leopold Museum highlights the striking contemporary resonance of this period in the city\u2019s art and design history\u2014a facet that is receiving increasing attention today, beyond any sense of historical weightiness. Since its opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10023311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,336,409,348],"tags":[410,418,358],"class_list":["post-10023319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-articles","category-design","category-latest","tag-culture-en","tag-culture-en-2","tag-kunst-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10023319"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10023333,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10023319\/revisions\/10023333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10023311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10023319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10023319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chapter.digital\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10023319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}