W&K modern & contemporary

exhibition @Kollegienkirche Salzburg

24. July - 26. August 2021

Kollegienkirche Salzburg
Wiener-Philharmoniker-Gasse 2 | 5020 Salzburg

opening hours

In 2021, W&K will take over the rooms of the KHG - Katholische Hochschulgemeinde at Kollegienkirche, the former gallery of Heike Curtze. The exhibition focuses on the impact of early Viennese modernism (Vienna 1900) on the Viennese post-war avant-garde, especially on Viennese Actionism. This formes an interesting link in terms of content from Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl to the art of the 1960s to the contemporary positions.

Early Viennese Modernism (Vienna 1900) had a lasting influence on avant-garde artists in Vienna from the post-war period to the present day. The focus rests on the intensive examination of the human body and the dimensions of physical and psychological experience. They broke taboos and conventions and addressed themes such as sexual desire, pregnancy, birth, death and even physical manifestations of mental illness, but also repressions of social life. The striving for a Gesamtkunstwerk that appeals to all the senses and fuses the various art forms is another central feature of classical Viennese modernism.

On show in Salzburg is a range from delicate drawings by Gustav Klimt to Egon Schiele's gouache and watercolour "Kneeling Female Nude" from 1914 to international classical modernism and works by Günter Brus, Otto Muehl and Franz West. But W&K is also continuing Heike Curtze's tradition and will also present young positions that are not part of her portfolio.