Culture

It was painter Gustav Klimt, one of the founders of the Vienna Secession movement, who quit the conservative Association of Austrian Artists to found a group that had more artistic freedom. Since its construction in 1898 the Secession building has remained not only an art-nouveau architectural wonder – note the golden-leaf orb atop – but also an avant-garde, artist-run exhibition venue. “Artists deal with art differently than museum directors,” says current president Herwig Kempinger. This is the place to discover the creative stars of tomorrow: Austrians such as post-internet sensation Oliver Laric or international mavericks such as UK Turner Prize-winner Mark Leckey exhibit works that you won’t see anywhere else. On permanent view in the basement is Klimt’s “Beethoven Frieze”, which in itself is worth a visit.

Commonly known by its German-language acronym MAK, the museum focuses on design, architecture and contemporary and applied arts. Run by Lilli Hollein, co-founder and long-time director of Vienna Design Week (and daughter of Austrian postmodernist architect Hans Hollein), MAK is packed with historical collections (there’s a Helmut Lang archive in the basement for style devotees) and frequently hosts thought-provoking exhibitions. The design shop carries whimsical Austrian products and is home to a world-renowned restaurant.
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Along the stunning Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard that encircles the Innere Stadt, two near-identical neo-Renaissance buildings face each other: one is the Natural History Museum and the other, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, is an 1891 structure erected by Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I to make the Habsburg art holdings accessible to the public. The interior is lavish – as you enter, admire the 60-metre-high dome above the hall – and the collection is a trip through art history. Galleries feature paintings by the likes of Arcimboldo, Caravaggio, Raphael, Rubens, Vermeer and Velázquez; side wings house ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman artefacts.