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Heidi Horten Collection
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EXHIBITION

The Line

 

The picture shows two figures standing very close to each other. They are made up of light-colored, intertwined surfaces. The shapes are beige with a little brown, red and gray. The faces are only hinted at: two black dots per figure represent the eyes. Both figures have thin, straight legs - like lines. A small red heart in the figures is particularly striking. It makes the picture tender and personal. The background is a warm, earthy color - calm and even. The title “Siblings” fits well: the figures seem connected, almost like a unit. You can sense closeness, trust and cohesion - very quietly and delicately.
The picture shows a colorful figure with raised arms. It stands in front of a red background with white lines that look like a grid or a sheet of music. The figure is painted in bold colors: the head is blue, the shirt is striped, the pants are blue. The face looks strong, loud and lively, like a mask or a cartoon head. At the top of the picture is written in white: “Red Cross Beginning of Theme (Fig. 1.)” - There are lines of music and many words. On the left are the titles of jazz pieces by the musician Charlie Parker. The artwork combines music, street art and personal feelings. Basquiat has depicted his roots, his role models and his view of the world here. You can recognize influences from pop art, graffiti, neo-expressionism and Haitian culture. It is a homage to life in New York, loud, wild, creative.
The picture shows a white canvas. It is not painted, but slashed open. Five long, fine cuts run vertically through the surface. The cuts are straight and elegant, some are slightly curved. The work was created by Lucio Fontana, an artist who became famous in the 1950s with his “Concetto Spaziale” (spatial concept) series. Instead of painting with color, he tears or punctures the canvas. He wants to show that a picture is not just a surface, but also space and depth.
The drawing shows a male nude from behind, seated. The body takes up almost the entire height of the picture and is executed on a beige-colored, slightly aged paper. The man is unclothed and is shown from the upper part of his back to his thighs. The head is only partially visible, tilted forward and extending out of the picture. The depiction is highly stylized and expressive. The shoulder blades, the spine and the muscles of the back are emphasized and highlighted in high-contrast lines and color fields. The back is colored in bright, sometimes almost aggressive colors - mainly in green, ochre, red and brown. The colors appear unnatural but exciting. The outlines are dark, angular and have striking breaks. The arms hang down loosely, one resting lightly on a surface. There is no implied background - the focus is exclusively on the body.
The artwork consists of thin, black wire that hangs in a seemingly illegible, free-form line in the room. The wire is lowered from the ceiling on several thin threads and floats in front of a brightly lit wall. At first glance, the shape of the wire looks like an abstract drawing in the air. It is only through the shadows cast by the targeted lighting that a legible word becomes visible on the wall: “line”. The wires themselves appear to be chaotically shaped when viewed from above, but in the shadows they form a surprisingly precise and clear message.
The artwork shows a group of luminous, round light bodies resting on tall, thin, black cable strands. The light bodies consist of circularly curved neon tubes or LED lights, whose clear geometry is reminiscent of luminous rings or hovering frames. The circles are at different heights, from eye to chest height, and stand in the room like a group of abstract figures. The long cables that extend downwards from the circles lie loose and curved on the floor, as if they were roots or floating lines. In the background is a large glass wall in which the light objects are reflected. This reflection optically doubles the installation and lends it depth, complexity and an almost spatially weightless effect. The entire work is installed in a bright, minimalist space and appears open, permeable and light-filled.
The picture shows a woman drawn from close up, looking thoughtfully to the side. She has large eyes with long eyelashes, blonde hair with black contours and slightly parted lips. In the lower right half of the picture, she is holding a microphone in front of her mouth, suggesting that she is singing or speaking. Above her head, in the upper third of the picture, a text can be read in capital letters in a speech bubble: “THE MEMORY HAUNTS MY REVERIE” (German: “Die Erinnerung verfolgt meine Träumerei”). The writing is framed by small music symbols, which emphasizes the musical character of the scene. To the right of the face is the handwritten inscription: “To Ileana”. Below this is Roy Lichtenstein's signature. The drawing is colored in black with accents in yellow, red and a touch of pink.

Paul Klee, Die Geschwister, 1930 © Heidi Horten Collection

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Red Savoy, 1983 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

 

Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale Attese, 1966 © Fondation Lucio Fontana, Milano, Bildrecht Wien

 

Egon Schiele, Sitzender männlicher Rückenakt, 1910 © Heidi Horten Collection, Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com / Manuel Carreon Lopez

 

Fred Eerdekens, Line, 2008 © Private Collection

 

Brigitte Kowanz, Relations, 2021© Estate Brigitte Kowanz / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025, Photo: Dirk Tacke

 

Roy Lichtenstein, The Memory Haunts my Reverie, ca. 1965 © Bildrecht, Vienna 2025, Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com / Manuel Carreon Lopez

 

“Line experiences many fates. Each creates a particular, specific world, from schematic limitation to unlimited expressivity. These worlds liberate line more and more from the instrument, leading to complete freedom of expression.”

Wassily Kandinsky, On Line (1919)

The exhibition Die Linie explores the line as a fundamental element of the visual arts. Moving between subjective gesture and constructive precision, it takes on countless roles: it structures surfaces and defines form, traces contours and boundaries, separates and connects. It documents time and space, describes reality, creates illusion, and captures the imaginary. In the infinite variety of its concepts, functions, and material forms, the line has much to reveal—about its time, its artists, and their concerns.

Starting from the classical medium of drawing, the exhibition examines the line’s potential to create artistic worlds and to respond, through art, to the world we live in. The focus lies on contemporary positions that transcend traditional genre boundaries, expanding the line into space and presenting it as a medium for reflecting on social and political realities.

 

19.9. 2025 - 8.3.2026

 

The artists featured in the exhibition are:

Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Kader Attia, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pierre Bismuth, Angela Bulloch, Rosemarie Castoro, Christo und Jeanne-Claude, Marie Cool Fabio Balducci, Carola Dertnig, Marcel Duchamp, Fred Eerdekens, Amy Feldman, Dan Flavin, Lucio Fontana, Günther Förg, Lucian Freud, Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt), Antony Gormley, Keith Haring, Alexej Jawlensky, Donald Judd, Birgit Jürgenssen, Reena Saini Kallat, Wassily Kandinsky, Žilvinas Kempinas, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Edgar Knoop, Joseph Kosuth, Brigitte Kowanz, Edward Krasiński, Alfred Kubin, Roy Lichtenstein, Constantin Luser, Piero Manzoni, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse, Vera Molnár, François Morellet, Nick Oberthaler, Helga Philipp, Pablo Picasso, Giulia Piscitelli, Sigmar Polke, Jackson Pollock, Dieter Roth, Fred Sandback, Sonia Sanoja, Egon Schiele, Chiharu Shiota, Cy Twombly, Franz West, Andy Warhol.

Intervention by Chiharu Shiota

The installation fills an exhibition space with a dense web of bright red threads stretching from the ceiling to the floor. Hundreds of white sheets of paper float within this net - they look like folded letters, loose sheets or small wings. The letters spiral upwards or outwards as if in a movement of air. The red color of the threads dominates the room. The threads are so numerous and dense that from a distance they look like a shimmering curtain that changes the boundaries of the room and creates a walk-in, almost physical experience.
 

Chiharu Shiota, Letters of Love, 2022 © Installation view MOCA Jacksonville, Florida, USA, Photo: Doug Eng Copyright 2025 and the artist

With an expansive site-specific installation, Chiharu Shiota transforms the line into a three-dimensional form that will manifest as a dense web within the museum's architecture. As part of the exhibition “The Line,” Shiota’s “spatial drawing” explores the intangible:

Memory and mourning, as well as the connections between people. The intervention will begin as a participatory project involving the museum’s visitors.

Exhibition View  Die Linie, 2025, Photo: Simon Veres © Heidi Horten Collection

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EXHIBITION

ORT – Ouriel Morgensztern

Ouriel Morgensztern

For its second intervention exhibition, the Heidi Horten Collection turns its focus to the Viennese photographer Ouriel Morgensztern, who engaged with the museum and its architecture in a highly personal way. His approach is deliberately subjective: instead of capturing the whole, Morgensztern concentrates on details that—through radical framing, extreme close-ups, and the interplay of light and shadow—gain an entirely new formal and aesthetic quality. He consistently manages to strike a balance: the architecture of the building is both present and absent in his photographs. The same holds true for the visitors and the art for which the museum was created. Though physically absent, they remain constantly evoked.

22 October 2025 to 12 April 2026

 

This duality of presence and absence runs through Morgensztern’s artistic practice. It is also central to one of his most recent projects, in which he retraces the Viennese film locations of the classic The Third Man. Its central figure, Harry Lime, believed to be dead, is absent for much of the film, yet still drives the narrative—just as the museum building itself is simultaneously present and absent in Morgensztern’s work.

Exhibition View ORT, Heidi Horten Collection, 2025

 

EXHIBITION

INTERVENTION

CO₂ntext 

An Artistic-Scientific Climate Project in the Hanuschhof

The photo shows the Hanuschhof from above. The floor is painted in bright colors - you can see large areas in blue, yellow, green, pink, orange and purple. Many small, colorful dots can be seen in each colored area. These dots show how much CO₂ was emitted in a given year - one dot represents one billion tons. The colors are vibrant and glow in the sunlight. The painting makes the courtyard friendly, eye-catching and lively - and it has a purpose: The special paint helps to reduce the heat because it reflects the sunlight better than normal concrete. This work of art is called “CO₂ntext”. It combines environmental issues, art and urban space - and invites people to reflect and linger.
The photo shows the Hanuschhof in Vienna - where the Heidi Horten Collection museum is located. The floor between the buildings is brightly painted. You can see many colored areas in pink, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. These colors are not only beautiful, they also have an important meaning. The painting shows how CO₂ emissions increase each year. Each colorful field represents a year - the further you go, the more CO₂. The color on the ground is also special: It reflects sunlight better than dark asphalt. This makes the square less hot - which helps the climate in the city. On the top right of the picture you can see a small green park with works of art and the bright museum building on the right.
The photo shows the Hanuschhof in Vienna. The floor is painted in bright colors - you can see large areas in blue, yellow, green, pink and purple. Many small, colorful dots can be seen in each colored area. These dots show how much CO₂ was emitted in a given year - one dot represents one billion tons. At the front in the middle is a white paint bucket with a long handle, next to it is a small paint tray - you can see that the artwork is currently being worked on or has recently been completed. The colors are vibrant and glow in the sunlight. The painting makes the courtyard friendly, eye-catching and lively - and it has a purpose: The special paint helps to reduce the heat because it reflects the sunlight better than normal concrete. This work of art is called “CO₂ntext”. It combines environmental issues, art and urban space - and invites people to reflect and linger.

Design: Holla Hoop

With CO₂ntext, the Heidi Horten Collection, in collaboration with Bundestheater-Holding and ART for ART, is sending a powerful message for climate awareness and sustainable urban design. At the heart of the project lies a vibrant ground mural in the Hanuschhof, designed by the Graz-based artist collective Holla Hoop. The special UV-reflective paint used lowers the ambient temperature by at least 5 °C and thus improves the microclimate - a benefit for museum guests, employees and local residents.

The visual design consists of 40 colored areas, each symbolizing a year. Each dot represents one billion tons of CO₂ - an artistically translated archive of global emissions.

since June 10, 2025

 

The project is supported by Prof. DI Dr. Hans-Peter Hutter, an environmental health expert at the Medical University of Vienna. He has long been researching the effects of climate change on human health and is committed to making scientific findings accessible to the public. His studies explore the impact of heat and air pollution, the spread of invasive species, and even the psychological effects of extreme weather events – including post-traumatic stress. Lesser-known phenomena such as “ecological grief” – often observed where familiar landscapes are irreversibly altered by climate change – also form part of his research. 

Technical background: Light-colored surfaces reflect the sun's rays better than dark asphalt, which counteracts the formation of urban heat islands. CO₂ntext shows how small urban interventions can have a big impact and offers a model for sustainable urban design with international appeal.

THE LINE

A short idea by Wassily Kandinsky (1919)

A line can do many things.
Each kind of line makes its own small world.
Some lines are strict.
Some lines are very free.
Step by step, the line becomes free from the tool.
In the end, a line can express anything.

— Wassily Kandinsky, On Line (1919)

About the exhibition

Title: Die Linie (The Line)
Dates: 19 September 2025 – 8 March 2026

This exhibition is about the line.
A line is a basic part of visual art.

A line can:

show a personal gesture;

be exact and planned;

structure a surface;

define shapes;

mark edges and borders;

separate things and also connect them;

show time and space;

show reality or create an illusion;

catch ideas and the imagination.

We start with drawing.
Then we show how artists today use the line in new ways.
Some artworks move the line into the room.
You can sometimes walk through the work.
The line can help us think about society and politics.

Artists in the exhibition

The exhibition shows works by these artists:

Pierre Alechinsky
Karel Appel
Kader Attia
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Pierre Bismuth
Angela Bulloch
Rosemarie Castoro
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Marie Cool Fabio Balducci
Carola Dertnig
Marcel Duchamp
Fred Eerdekens
Amy Feldman
Dan Flavin
Lucio Fontana
Günther Förg
Lucian Freud
Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt)
Antony Gormley
Keith Haring
Alexej Jawlensky
Donald Judd
Birgit Jürgenssen
Reena Saini Kallat
Wassily Kandinsky
Žilvinas Kempinas
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Paul Klee
Gustav Klimt
Edgar Knoop
Joseph Kosuth
Brigitte Kowanz
Edward Krasiński
Alfred Kubin
Roy Lichtenstein
Constantin Luser
Piero Manzoni
Agnes Martin
Henri Matisse
Vera Molnár
François Morellet
Nick Oberthaler
Helga Philipp
Pablo Picasso
Giulia Piscitelli
Sigmar Polke
Jackson Pollock
Dieter Roth
Fred Sandback
Sonia Sanoja
Egon Schiele
Chiharu Shiota
Cy Twombly
Franz West
Andy Warhol

Intervention: Chiharu Shiota — Letters of Love (2022)

What you see
One room is full of bright red threads.
The threads go from the ceiling to the floor.
Inside the web are many white papers.
They look like letters, loose pages, or small wings.
The papers seem to spiral and move.
From far away, the red threads look like a shimmering curtain.
The work changes the room.
You can walk inside the space.

What it means
Chiharu Shiota turns the line into a three-dimensional web.
She calls this a spatial drawing.
The work is about memory, loss, and human connections.
The project is participatory.
Visitors can take part.

Image credit: Chiharu Shiota, Letters of Love, 2022. Installation view, MOCA Jacksonville, Florida, USA. Photo: Doug Eng. © 2025 the artist.

ORT — Ouriel Morgensztern (Intervention Exhibition)

Dates: 22 October 2025 – 12 April 2026

This exhibition shows photos by Ouriel Morgensztern.
He is a photographer from Vienna.

How he works
He looks at the museum in a personal way.
He does not show the whole building.
He shows details.
He uses strong framing and very close views.
He plays with light and shadow.
The photos get a new look and new forms.

In the photos, the building is present and also not present.
Visitors and artworks are also not visible, but you can feel them.

This idea is important in his work:
presence and absence at the same time.

Morgensztern also made a recent project in Vienna.
He visited places from the classic film The Third Man.
In the film, the main figure Harry Lime seems dead and absent.
But he still drives the story.
In the same way, the museum building is present and absent in his photos.

CO₂ntext

The Heidi Horten Collection, together with Bundestheater-Holding and ART for ART, has launched a special art project called CO₂ntext.

The goal: To make the city cooler, greener, and more pleasant.

What can you see?

At the Hanuschhof, just next to the museum, you’ll now find a colorful painting on the ground. It was created by the artist collective Holla Hoop from Graz.
The paint is special – it reflects sunlight and cools the ground by at least 5 degrees Celsius. That makes the area more comfortable for visitors, staff, and neighbors.

What does the painting mean?

There are 40 color fields – each one stands for a year.
Each painted dot represents one billion tons of CO₂ emissions.
It’s an artistic way of showing the history of global emissions.

Since when?

The artwork has been on display since June 10, 2025.

Who supports the project?

Professor Hans-Peter Hutter from MedUni Vienna is providing scientific support.
He studies how climate change affects our health.
He praises CO₂ntext as a hopeful and creative example of how art can support climate action.

Why does it matter?

Bright surfaces reflect the sun better than dark asphalt, which helps prevent heat in the city.
CO₂ntext shows that even small projects can have a big impact – and can even inspire cities around the world.