iAlbertinaInnere Stadt
Her Story: Women Artists of the Albertina
The first show devoted to the women artists in the Albertina's collection, from medieval convent woodcuts to early feminist work of the 1970s.
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Preview: written before the show opened
Of the Albertina's roughly 1.2 million works, about 41,000 are by women, and more than 1,400 of those women are known by name. This is the first show built from them. The founders, Duke Albert and Archduchess Marie Christine, were already buying prints by women engravers and publishers in the 18th century. Those prints waited until the museum's 250th birthday for a show of their own.
The run starts with woodcuts from medieval convents and ends with early feminist work of the 1970s, by way of Maria Sibylla Merian, Angelika Kauffmann, Berthe Morisot, Käthe Kollwitz, Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig and VALIE EXPORT. Many works are on view for the first time, or the first in decades. Up close you're looking at chalk on blue paper, drypoint and paint on parchment: Merian's nettle is 17 cm tall.
Admission is €20.90, under-19s are free, and the museum is open until 21:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays. Public guided tours are scheduled.
Look for
Merian's stinging nettle
Look for a nettle carrying the metamorphosis of the small tortoiseshell butterfly and two kinds of fly, painted over an engraving on parchment, 1679-1683.
Vigée Le Brun's young draughtswoman
A young woman drawing a girl's portrait, in black and white chalk on blue paper, from around 1790-1795.
Emilie Mediz-Pelikan's Female Centaur
A woman's body on a horse's, drawn in coloured chalk across a long grey-green sheet in 1895.
Morisot drawing, with Julie
Berthe Morisot's 1889 drypoint of herself at work, with her daughter Julie beside her.
Kauffmann's fainting Julia
Pompey's wife Julia collapses on recognising her husband's bloodstained tunic, in pen and brush on blue paper, around 1785.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Under-19s get into the Albertina free, and the show is part of the standard ticket.
Also at Albertina
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Her Story: Women Artists of the AlbertinaCourtesy of Albertina
- Elisabeth von SamsonowHeidi Horten Collection / Elisabeth von Samsonow
- TO SHOE OR NOT TO SHOE. Warhol and othersHeidi Horten Collection
- The Global Power of Love. A Journey Through the CenturiesÖsterreichische Nationalbibliothek
- AlbertinaC.Stadler/Bwag, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Theatermuseum (Palais Lobkowitz)Gryffindor / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5
- State Hall of the Austrian National Library (Prunksaal)Mirej / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT
- Jewish Museum Vienna (Jüdisches Museum Wien)Sonja Bachmayer / Jewish Museum Vienna, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0