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Visiting Vienna

Kunst Haus Wien (Hundertwasser Museum)

If you like sharp corners and straight lines, look away now. The Kunst Haus Wien is art within art: the building itself follows a Hundertwasser design and the Hundertwasser museum inside acts as a showcase for his inimitable work. Bring your imagination.

Kunst Haus Wien

Kunst Haus Wien front entrance

The Kunst Haus Wien essentially consists of two parts: the Hundertwasser Museum and a temporary photographic exhibition.

The building, designed by Hundertwasser himself, snubs its nose at the conformity of modern architecture and illustrates his artistic and philosophical vision through a multi-coloured façade, uneven lines, and use of live vegetation.

Inside is no different.

Uneven tiled floors merge into wooden floorboards. “Tree tenants” reach outside from the safety of their interior boxes. Walls curve and swerve their way around the galleries. Even the stairway bannisters join in the fun, with no one newel the same as the next.

(I had to look up the word “newel”. It’s the capped vertical bits in the banisters.)

Anyway, it’s all a joyous experience even before you get to the museum’s actual exhibitions.

Front of the Kunst Haus Wien

Two floors trace Hundertwasser’s artistic endeavours from the 1940s through to the last years of his life. This begins with pencil sketches and conventional landscapes before quickly morphing into the “classic” Hundertwasser styles: striking colours, rings, spirals, uneven forms, and images that draw you in, revealing themselves and their depth only after close examination.

As Hundertwasser said himself:

The straight line is godless

But the museum covers more than just his paintings, with sections devoted to, for example, his stamp, flag and number plate designs, as well as his architecture.

You also find small bonuses interspersed among the works of art and architecture, such as Hundertwasser quotes and displays illustrating his philosophies on life (such as “the plant as water purification facility”).

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Highlights

The whole museum serves as a treasure trove for fans of Hundertwasser’s work, but a few exhibits left a particularly lasting impression on me. For example:

  • The famous image of Hundertwasser is “bearded with a cap” (you can see one such headwear in the museum), but a 1947 self-portrait shows the artist as a young man, his clean-shaven countenance a stark contrast to that traditional image
  • A display cabinet with gorgeous embossed Hundertwasser book covers
  • A large model of a proposed architectural project, “In the meadow hills”, with houses integrated into their surrounds, streams, and curving paths. Sheep graze on grassed roofs. Echoes of Tolkien’s The Shire and Hobbiton…
  • The Japanese woodcuts and silk screen paintings which pop with colour, glistening in the light

The photo exhibition

The top-class photo exhibitions on the upper floor, split across two levels, always provide a treat for the eyes and mind. Which is why I recommend paying the small extra to get a joint ticket for both exhibition and museum (see below).

Current/next main photo exhibition:

Selected past exhibitions:

The Kunst Haus Wien often has other art installations and smaller exhibitions dotted around the premises, and the institution also organises the Foto Wien photographic festival.

Tickets & visitor tips

At the time of writing, a standard adult ticket for the Hundertwasser Museum costs €11. However, an extra €1 (one!) gets you a combined museum and photo exhibition ticket (most definitely worth it).

(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)

An alternative is the Vienna Pass (a sightseeing pass), which gets you into both once for free.

A few tips and notes:

  • All display information is in both English and German, with an audioguide available, too
  • A good-sized shop has exactly what you might expect: Hundertwasser designs turned into postcards, calendars, posters, porcelain, umbrellas, and other items. This is the place to purchase your Hundertwasser hat, too
  • The architectural concept extends to the toilets, which might be the most intriguing in all of Vienna
  • Ditto the Kunst Haus café and restaurant. Grab a coffee, if only to sit in what feels like a madcap converted conservatory, complete with tropical vegetation
  • Another good address in Vienna for photo exhibitions is the Westlicht photography centre, which also has a small camera museum

How to get to the Kunst Haus Wien

The Kunst Haus Wien is a conveniently short walk from the famous Hundertwasserhaus, but both are a tiny bit away from most other tourist destinations.

Tram: take tram 1 or O (that’s the letter O) to Radetzkyplatz. If you’re in the centre, you can catch the 1 from, for example, Schwedenplatz station on the U1 and U4 subway lines.

Address: Untere Weißgerberstraße 13, 1030 Vienna | Website

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