Leopold Museum
The spring exhibition PREMIERE! The Oesterreichische Nationalbank Collection, shown from 24 April, is the first to afford an extensive overview of the OeNB’s diverse and rich art collection. The presentation honors the long-standing ties between the two institutions. The Oesterreichische Nationalbank, the Central Bank of the Republic of Austria, made a significant financial contribution to the foundation of the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994, and thus played a significant part in the history and success story of the Leopold Museum.
Since the late 1980s, the OeNB has been collecting Austrian paintings and sculptures from 1918 to the present, with special emphases on the art of the interwar period (including post-Expressionism and New Objectivity) and on abstract works created after 1945. The exhibition features works by artists of New Objectivity, including Rudolf Wacker and Franz Sedlacek, as well as independent positions from the interwar period, as pursued by artists from Max Oppenheimer to Greta Freist. With regards to contemporary art, the presentation reveals interesting parallels between the different generations of artists, for instance between Maria Lassnig and Tobias Pils or Svenja Deininger and Ernst Caramelle. The collection further includes various approaches to abstraction in painting – pursued by artists from Martha Jungwirth to Herbert Brandl – as well as sculptural works, for instance by Josef Pillhofer and Julia Haugeneder.
With this presentation, the Leopold Museum continues its exhibition policy of showcasing renowned private and corporate collections, in the context of which the museum previously hosted the collection of the Fondation Beyeler, the Vienna Insurance Group Collections, the Heidi Horten Collection and the Würth Collection.
Curators: Chiara Galbusera, Hans-Peter Wipplinger
IMAGES
CARRY HAUSER 1895–1985 Judas Kiss, 1923 Oil on cardboard | 41 × 32 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann © Bildrecht, Wien 2026
ALFONS WALDE 1891–1958 Sunday, c. 1924 Oil on cardboard | 76.5 × 72 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann © Bildrecht, Wien 2026
RUDOLF WACKER 1893–1939 Still Life with Oil Can and “Chinese Picture”, 1925 Oil on canvas | 65 × 50 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
MAXIMILIAN REINITZ, Waidhofen an der Ybbs, 1927 © Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection | Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
MAX OPPENHEIMER 1885–1954 The Chess Match, c. 1925/30 Oil on canvas | 55.2 × 78.2 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
JOSEF GASSLER, Portrait of Halina Wittlin-Moser, c. 1928 © Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection | Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
GRETA FREIST 1904–1993 La danseuse (The Dancer), 1938 Oil on canvas | 99.2 × 72.2 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
MAX OPPENHEIMER 1885–1954 Surgery, 1951 Oil on canvas, mounted on wood | 125 × 110 cm Oesterreichische Nationalbank/Art Collection Photo: OeNB/Graphisches Atelier Neumann
