The ALBERTINA presents a retrospective of the history of printmaking over a period of six centuries, from Albrecht Dürer and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec to Kiki Smith and Damien Hirst. The two exhibitions planned as a pas de deux - at both ALBERTINA locations - span from works of the late Middle Ages to the prints of contemporary art. The two exhibitions are joined by a third, as it were, dedicated solely to the most important printmaker of the 20th century: Picasso.

The first exhibit, Dürer. Munch. Miró - The Great Masters of Printmaking will open at the ALBERTINA at the end of January. It presents outstanding works of the so-called 'Old Masters' - including Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel, Rembrandt van Rijn - and leads up to the impressive works of modern and contemporary art.

The second part of the exhibition will be at the ALBERTINA MODERN from the end of February. It presents 20th century artist that radically broke with the tradition of printmaking and found a new monumentality in the technique of silkscreen printing in the 1960s.

Dürer. Munch. Miró.

The exhibition begins with the most outstanding works by Martin Schongauer and Albrecht Dürer at the ALBERTINA. This is continued with the engravings of Hendrick Goltzius and Pieter Bruegel’s only etching.

Modern art is introduced by the magnificent lithographs of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Norwegian Edvard Munch's revolutionary, symbolist-expressionist woodcut. Munch plays a central role in the modernization of the traditional woodcut and a major influence on the German expressionist prints by Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

The works of Marc Chagall and Joan Miró will close the exhibition. Important women artists will be represented by Kähte Kollwitz, the recently deceased Portuguese Paula Rego, and the Austrian artist Florentina Pakosta. This overview attests to the development of diverse printmaking techniques throughout 6 centuries.

Albertina Wien