25th Anniversary of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation: 1994—2019.
Elegant Dinner at the Leopold Museum

10.10.2019

Prominent guests including Federal Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein and Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig paid tribute to the success story of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.

The Foundation

25 years ago, in 1994, the collector Prof. Rudolf Leopold founded the Leopold Museum Private Foundation (LMPF) together with the Austrian state and with financial support from the Austrian National Bank. The declared aim of the non-profit foundation was to permanently preserve the Leopold Collection, which at the time comprised more than 5,000 works, to make it accessible to the public via a museum and to document and research it through exhibitions.

The collection: Vienna 1900. Klimt, Gerstl, Kokoschka, Schiele

The emphasis of the founder Rudolf Leopold’s collection is on Classical Modernism, especially on art from Vienna around 1900, with works by Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Ferdinand Hodler, Franz von Stuck, and many other artists. The collection of the Leopold Museum has since grown to more than 6,000 works and features the world’s most comprehensive compilation of works by the Austrian Expressionists Egon Schiele – which plays an integral part in the brilliant new presentation of the museum’s collection Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism – and Richard Gerstl, whose works are currently on display in the successful exhibition Richard Gerstl. Inspiration — Legacy. Already in the 1950s, Rudolf Leopold and his wife Elisabeth presented parts of their collection in exhibitions in Europe and the United States. Following the inception of the foundation in 1994, but before the opening of the Leopold Museum in 2001, the Leopold Collection was on display several times as part of traveling exhibitions in Japan, Germany, Spain, the US, and also in Austria.

Impressive series of exhibitions at the Leopold Museum

Since its opening in September 2001, the Leopold Museum has already shown more than 120 exhibitions, including ground-breaking monographic exhibitions on art around 1900 and of the 20th century, for example on Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Ferdinand Hodler, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Albin Egger-Lienz, Christian Schad, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Anton Kolig, Arik Brauer and Zoran Mušić. The impressive range of presentations has also included dialogue exhibitions (Tracey Emin — Egon Schiele, Carl Spitzweg – Erwin Wurm), themed exhibitions (Edvard Munch and the Uncanny, The Naked Truth, Naked Men, Foreign Gods), as well as collection presentations (Musée d’Orsay, Fondation Beyeler, Osthaus Museum, Heidi Horten Collection). Presentations on art from the 19th century (Theodor von Hörmann, Anton Romako, Olga Wisinger-Florian) as well as group and solo exhibitions of contemporary art (The Poetics of the Material, Traces of Time, Berlinde De Bruyckere. Suture) are also pillars of the museum’s exhibition activities. Another feature of the museum’s varied program are cooperation projects and exhibitions, for instance together with the Vienna Festival (The Conundrum of Imagination) and ImPulsTanz (Jan Fabre. STIGMATA).

The Artistic Directors

The Leopold Museum’s first artistic director, from 2001 to 2010, was the museum founder Rudolf Leopold. After his death, Tobias G. Natter took over as artistic director, and was superseded by Franz Smola as interim director in 2013. Since 2015 the museum has been headed by Hans-Peter Wipplinger, and in 2018 counted more than half a million visitors for the first time.

Prominent guests invited to 25th anniversary dinner

The Head of the Board of Directors Josef Ostermayer and the Director of the Leopold Museum Hans-Peter Wipplinger cordially welcomed the illustrious guests during a cocktail reception. Director Wipplinger personally guided visitors through the new permanent presentation Vienna 1900. The dinner organized by Café Leopold was enjoyed – in the presence of the Austrian Federal Chancellor Brigitte Bierlein and the Mayor of Vienna Michael Ludwig – by Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger, former Vice-Chancellor Erhard Busek, government spokesman Alexander Winterstein (Federal Chancellery), the Head of the Board of Directors of the Leopold Museum Josef Ostermayer, the Leopold Museum board members Elisabeth Leopold, Agnes Husslein-Arco, Carl Aigner (former Director of the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich) and Werner Muhm with his wife Hermine, the museum’s Managing Director Gabriele Langer, Professor Tobias G. Natter (Natter Fine Arts), the CEO of Vienna Insurance Group Günter Geyer, CEO of the Austrian Post Georg Pölzl (Head of the Board of the Leopold Museum’s Circle of Patrons) accompanied by his wife Eveline, the president of the Association of Friends of the Leopold Museum Hans Raumauf (chairman of Vienna Insurance Group), the former president of the Austrian National Bank Adolf Wala, the former chairman of the general council of the Austrian National Bank Claus Raidl, the former governor of the Austrian National Bank Klaus Liebscher and his wife Vita, the former chairmen of the Leopold Museum Helmut Moser (former Head of the Board of Directors of the LMPF), Prof. Alfons Huber (former vice president of Porr) and his wife, retired university professor Peter Doralt, LL.M. and his wife Roswitha, attorney Martin Eder, attorney Andreas Nödl, Wolfgang Nolz (former Head of the Ministry of Finance) and the former City Councillor in Charge of Cultural Affairs Andreas Mailath-Pokorny as well as culture manager Christian Meyer (former Director of the Arnold Schönberg Center), the former Managing Director of the Leopold Museum Peter Weinhäupl (Chairman Klimt Foundation), the collectors Diethard and Waltraud Leopold, attorney Dr. Ernst Ploil (Im kinsky) with his wife Brigitte, musician Prof. Rudolf Leopold, Sven Christoph Wagner (Federal Chancellery, press spokesman of the Federal Chancellor), university professor Susanne Kalss (Vienna University, Vienna University of Economics and Business) and art restorer Manfred Siems.

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