The World in Colors

Art history or a history in art? Lower Belvedere’s The World in Colors exhibition showcases Slovenian painting in the final seven decades of Habsburg rule.

• Highlights from the years 1848-1918
• Also sheds light on the cultural and political context
• Runs Jan 30 – May 25, 2025
• Buy Lower Belvedere tickets*
• See also:
  • Lower Belvedere overview
  • Art exhibitions in Vienna

Slovenian painting

(Ivan Grohar, The Field of Rafolce, 1903, photo: Belvedere, Vienna)

Although the Austrian-Hungarian empire collapsed relatively quickly at the end of WWI, many of its constituent parts had long nurtured a growing wish for more independence.

Take Slovenia, for example, where the 1848 year of revolution, as in many parts of Europe, proved a notable date in this context.

Formal local demands for a merged “Slovenian” province and increased national autonomy arose that year. Predictably, these received a large “Nein” from the monarchy.

However, fuses had been firmly lit: Slovenia at least continued with its sociocultural drift away from Viennese dominance.

This era of coalescing Slovenian national identity makes an excellent timeline for an exploration of Slovenian painting. Hence the The World in Colors exhibition at Lower Belvedere in cooperation with the National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana.

(As an aside, Ljubljana is a lovely location to visit: a small riverside city where much of the historical architecture remains in the centre.)

(Ivana Kobilca, Summer, 1889-90, photo: National Gallery of Slovenia)

The exhibition exposes us to numerous influential painters from that period, including the likes of Jožef Tominc (1790-1866), Jožef Petkovšek (1861-1898) or Ivana Kobilca (1861-1926).

Two particular areas of focus are:

• The time around 1900, which saw the influential Slovenian impressionists come to the fore

Turn-of-the-century painters also engaged with colour to a greater extent than in most places, whether in terms of application techniques, symbolism, or colour’s impact within a work.

• The relationship between Slovenian artists and “Vienna”

Imperial Austria offered educational and income opportunities, but not undisputed acceptance. Archival material offers insights into the cultural and geopolitical context the artists worked in.

I’ll add more details when I’ve had a chance to visit.

Dates, tickets & tips

Enjoy some of the best of Slovenian painting from January 30th to May 25th, 2025. An entrance ticket for or from Lower Belvedere includes the exhibition.

Walk up to Upper Belvedere for more on the same era, too, particularly from Vienna around 1900.

For some of the same period, Lower Belvedere has a second treat for us in another special exhibition. Gustav Klimt – Pigment & Pixel reveals some of the painter’s methods and practices, as revealed in technical analyses.

How to get to the paintings

The exhibition takes place in the Lower Belvedere main galleries (the central & east side of the palace).

Follow the travel tips on the Belvedere directions page, but your main option is the 71 tram that travels around the western edge of the old town before heading out past Lower Belvedere.

Address: Rennweg 6, 1030 Vienna