THE LEOPOLD MUSEUM’S 2025 NEW YEAR’S RECEPTION

20.01.2025

Circle of Patrons and Salon Leopold

The Directors of the Leopold Museum, Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Moritz Stipsicz, hosted a New Year’s reception on Tuesday, 14th January, together with Georg Pölzl, head of the Circle of Patrons (COP) and board member Saskia Leopold. In a relaxed setting, Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger outlined the highlights of the upcoming year to the 250 invited guests, and presented two eminent donations.

The guests from the areas of art, culture, business and politics enjoyed an atmospheric evening at the Leopold Museum. Among them were Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, the ambassador of Hungary Edit Szilágyiné Bátorfi, the deputy ambassador of South Korea Kyung-Ah Lee, former US ambassador Helene von Damm, the former president of the national council Wolfgang Sobotka, the head of the Circle of Patrons Georg Pölzl, the COP board members Sabina and Thomas Baumgartner-Parzer, Eva Maria Höfer, Harald Friedrich and Clemens Schindler, the Leopold Museum board members Josef Ostermayer, Sonja Hammerschmid and Danielle Spera, as well as the members of the Salon Leopold committee Jürgen Pölzl, Catharina Knobloch and Jakob Jelinek.

The New Year’s reception was further attended by Georg Riedl (Wiener Städtische Versicherung), Peter Umundum (ÖPAG), manager Stefan Ottrubay (Esterhazy), Martin Schenk (Diakonie), Barbara Potisk-Eibensteiner, Thomas Jakoubek, Werner Trenker, Gudrun Marecek (Nitsch Foundation), Martin Böhm (Dorotheum), art market expert Andrea Jungmann, the collectors Kathrin Weber and Axel Anderl (Dorda), artists Anna Jermolaewa, Eva Schlegel, Andreas Duscha, Constantin Luser, Hubert Scheibl, Gregor Schmoll and Walter Vopava, actors Verena Altenberger and Mavie Hörbiger, collector Helmut Klewan, Waltraud Leopold, architect Hermann Eisenköck, art historian Thomas Zaunschirm, Felix Hoffmann (Fotoarsenal Wien), gallery owners Herbert Giese and Philipp Konzett, Birgit Vikas (Kunsttrans), Thomas Zierhofer-Kin, jeweler Wolfgang Köchert, entrepreneur Alexander Stolitzka (Eversheds Sutherland), and many others.

Preview of 2025

In 2025, the Leopold Museum trains the spotlight on Egon Schiele’s late oeuvre, takes a fresh look at the art of the Biedermeier, retraces the fascination with the occult around 1900 and honors Ortner & Ortner’s Libelle with its artistic interventions by Eva Schlegel and Brigitte Kowanz. Additionally, the museum invites visitors to delve into an innovative Virtual Reality Experience with Egon Schiele, expands its Online Collection and presents the relaunch of the Egon Schiele Autograph Database. Those in need of relaxation during their visit to the Leopold Museum can head for the new Hoffmann Lounge, an homage to the world-renowned architect and designer Josef Hoffmann.

Donation of an Eminent Key Work by Paula Modersohn-Becker

A generous donator made it possible for the Leopold Museum to acquire the oil painting Mother and Child by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907), created around 1904. The masterpiece by the pioneer of Expressionism hails from a German private collection, and was purchased by the Leopold Museum last October in London. This key work of Modernism and important addition to the museum’s collection of Expressionism will be shown as of now as part of the permanent presentation. The only work by the artist in a public collection in Vienna, is a definitive desideratum for Austrian museums.

Leopold Museum Receives Extensive Franz Hagenauer Collection

The family of entrepreneurs Breinsberg gifted 139 eminent works by the ground-breaking metal sculptor Franz Hagenauer (1906–1986) to museum. The exquisite artworks, compiled over decades, expand the Leopold Museum’s Hagenauer holdings, thus making it home to the world’s most extensive and most eminent collection of works by the “designer among sculptors”. Already back in 2022, the museum dedicated a comprehensive retrospective to the artist. The majority of the loans hailed from the collection of Monika and Erich Breinsberg. Select heads and torsi by Franz Hagenauer are currently on display as part of the permanent presentation From Expressionism to New Objectivity.

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