The Great Michelangelo is Dead!
Avant-Garde and Academicism
2 October 2026 – 22 August 2027

Paintings Gallery
Schillerplatz 3
1010 Vienna



Contact: 
Claudia Bauer 
Head of Communication 
+43 1 58816 2211  
c.bauer@akbild.ac.at 
kunstsammlungen_presse@akbild.ac.at
Exhibition on view: 2 October 2026–22 August 2027
Opening: 1 October 2026, 7 pm
Guided press tour: 1 October 2026, 11 am

With historic works from the Art Collections of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna – Paintings Gallery, Graphic Collection, and Plaster Cast Collection – complemented by numerous loans: works by Sandro Botticelli, Gustave Courbet, Artemisia Gentileschi, William Hogarth, Charles Le Brun, Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Nicolas Poussin, Joachim von Sandrart, Pierre Subleyras, Tiziano Vecellio (known as Titian), Giorgio Vasari, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Januarius Zick, and others
Contemporary positions with works on loan and re-enactments by Wolfgang Hollegha, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Louise Lawler, Roy Lichtenstein, Markus Lüpertz, Francis Picabia, Chris Reinecke, Katharina Sieverding, Abel Auer, Alice Creischer, Vaginal Davis, Stephan Dillemuth, Thomas Eggerer, Michaela Eichwald, Abdulnasser Gharem, Stephan Janitzky, Jutta Koether, Birgit Megerle, Andy Hope 1930, Ariane Müller, Gunter Reski, Hong Zeiss, and Heimo Zobernig

Curated by Helmut Draxler
With curatorial contributions by Hans-Jürgen Hafner and Claudia Koch (Paintings Gallery)

More information about the exhibition can be found in the > PressRelease.pdf  


Press photographs for download  >  
 

  • Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti, Dying Slave from the Tomb of Pope Julius II, original 1513–1516 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Plaster cast after Michelangelo Buonarroti, Dying Slave from the Tomb of Pope Julius II, original 1513–1516 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Sandro Botticelli, Madonna with Child and Two Angels © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Sandro Botticelli, Madonna with Child and Two Angels © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Giorgio Vasari, The Marriage at Cana, 1566 © Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
    Giorgio Vasari, The Marriage at Cana, 1566 © Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

  • Cornelius Cort, after Jan van der Straet, The Academy of Fine Arts, 1578 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Cornelius Cort, after Jan van der Straet, The Academy of Fine Arts, 1578 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Antonio Zecchin, after Charles Le Brun, La Tristesse, sheet 12 from the series Expressions des passions de l’ame par Monsieur Charles Le Brun, c.1800 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Antonio Zecchin, after Charles Le Brun, La Tristesse, sheet 12 from the series Expressions des passions de l’ame par Monsieur Charles Le Brun, c.1800 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Unknown artist, after Sebastién Bourdon, Tobias Burying the Men Killed by Sennacherib, 1637–1645 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Unknown artist, after Sebastién Bourdon, Tobias Burying the Men Killed by Sennacherib, 1637–1645 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Joachim von Sandrart, Minerva and Saturn Protecting Art and Science, dated 1644 © Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Picturegallery
    Joachim von Sandrart, Minerva and Saturn Protecting Art and Science, dated 1644 © Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Picturegallery

  • Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Male Nude, Seated and Standing, („Het Rolwagentje“), c. 1646 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Male Nude, Seated and Standing, („Het Rolwagentje“), c. 1646 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Allegory on the Fate of Art, c. 1770 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Franz Anton Maulbertsch, Allegory on the Fate of Art, c. 1770 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Januarius Zick, Rousseau Reading the Prize Competition from the Academy of Dijon, 1757 © Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen
    Januarius Zick, Rousseau Reading the Prize Competition from the Academy of Dijon, 1757 © Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen

  • Jacob van Schuppen, Self-Portrait before the Easel, 1718 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Jacob van Schuppen, Self-Portrait before the Easel, 1718 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Christ’s Parable of the Tares, 1816 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Christ’s Parable of the Tares, 1816 © Graphic Collection of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Martin Ferdinand Quadal, The Life Class of the Vienna Academy in the St Anne Building, 1787 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Martin Ferdinand Quadal, The Life Class of the Vienna Academy in the St Anne Building, 1787 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, A Journey Refused, 1865 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, A Journey Refused, 1865 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Gustave Courbet, Rocky Landscape near Ornans, c. 1855–1860 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Gustave Courbet, Rocky Landscape near Ornans, c. 1855–1860 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet, Sermon in the Old Church in Delft, c. 1658/1660 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
    Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet, Sermon in the Old Church in Delft, c. 1658/1660 © Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

  • Katharina Sieverding, Eigenbewegung 1967–69 (detail), Joseph Beuys in front of the Academy, photo © Katharina Sieverding / Bildrecht, Vienna 2026
    Katharina Sieverding, Eigenbewegung 1967–69 (detail), Joseph Beuys in front of the Academy, photo © Katharina Sieverding / Bildrecht, Vienna 2026

  • Roy Lichtenstein, The Old Tree, 1984, from the series Cartoon Brushstroke Landscape, Private Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / Bildrecht, Wien 2026
    Roy Lichtenstein, The Old Tree, 1984, from the series Cartoon Brushstroke Landscape, Private Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein / Bildrecht, Wien 2026

  • Birgit Megerle, The Publisher, 2026, Courtesy Birgit Megerle, Foto: Gunter Lepkowski
    Birgit Megerle, The Publisher, 2026, Courtesy Birgit Megerle, Foto: Gunter Lepkowski

  • Abel Auer, Freedom/Death (after Regnault), 2026 © Abel Auer
    Abel Auer, Freedom/Death (after Regnault), 2026 © Abel Auer

  • Alice Creischer, Hundert Jahre Freiheit, 2026 © Alice Creischer, Courtesy KOW, Berlin; Bildrecht, Wien 2026
    Alice Creischer, Hundert Jahre Freiheit, 2026 © Alice Creischer, Courtesy KOW, Berlin; Bildrecht, Wien 2026

    • Note: The photographic material may be used free of charge exclusively for editorial reporting on the exhibitions and the Art Collections of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and must be marked with the copyright of the originator when published.