Showing women artists – but also changing museum history

On 30 October, the ALBERTINA in Vienna opens an exhibition devoted to women artists in its own collection. It will span five centuries: from early women draughtspeople and printmakers to feminist practices of the 1970s. The names range from Maria Sibylla Merian and Angelika Kauffmann through Käthe Kollwitz and Louise Bourgeois to Maria Lassnig and VALIE EXPORT. The question behind the exhibition extends beyond its run: when does visibility translate into change within the institution that selects, preserves and tells the story of art?

What the collection tells us – and what it does not

The ALBERTINA describes the exhibition as the first comprehensive survey of women artists in its collection. It also forms part of the museum’s 250th-anniversary programme. The museum points to a research project examining women artists across all areas of its holdings. It says this has brought to light works that have rarely, if ever, been shown. An exhibition can make such gaps visible; it can also raise the question of how they came about.

Collections are not neutral reflections of art history. They embody the decisions of their respective eras: what was collected, catalogued, exhibited and presented as significant. A study published in 2017 of women photographers in the holdings of ten European museums found marked under-representation. It does not provide a survey of the ALBERTINA’s holdings, nor can its findings be applied directly to every art form. Yet it remains relevant as an indication of a structural problem: what is missing from a museum is often not simply a matter of what is currently hanging on its walls.

Looking at the collection also means considering its founding history. The ALBERTINA emphasises that Archduchess Marie Christine was involved alongside Duke Albert in establishing the institution: her wealth enabled important acquisitions, and she was an artist herself. Here, too, the narrative is being rebalanced – not by simply reversing an existing account, but by bringing a long-overlooked figure to its centre.

The temporary exhibition as a starting point

Making women artists visible is not the same as changing an institution for good. A temporary exhibition can bring works out of storage and stimulate research; afterwards, they may disappear from public view again. What follows is therefore crucial: will the holdings continue to be researched and documented? Will acquisitions change? Will works be shown regularly in the collection galleries, and will the artists’ contributions be incorporated into accounts of art history?

This is not a call for a single quota that would have to treat all collections alike. It is a question of whether museums make their decisions transparent and examine whose works are missing from their holdings and exhibitions. The ALBERTINA itself also poses this question in relation to its historical collection. According to the anniversary programme, considering women artists when acquiring contemporary art is now a matter of course; for older holdings, the examination remains open. The real work lies between these two areas: recognising inherited gaps, researching works and drawing the consequences for selection and display.

Two exhibitions, different scales

In Frankfurt, the Schirn is devoting a major retrospective to Leonor Fini, running from 23 October 2026 to 21 February 2027. Around a hundred works will bring together paintings, drawings, photographs and objects from several decades. Fini, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1907 and died in 1996, was closely associated with Surrealism, but developed an independent visual language spanning dream, myth and staging. The Schirn describes strong female figures and androgynous characters in her work that shift familiar gender roles.

The exhibitions in Frankfurt and Vienna operate on different scales: one is a retrospective devoted to a single artist, the other a survey of women in a collection across different periods. What they share is the need not to confuse attention with critical reassessment. A retrospective can offer a fresh understanding of an artist; a collection display can show what an institution already owns. But whether this produces a different museum history is also decided after the exhibition has been dismantled – in catalogues, in research, in the next acquisitions and on the walls that remain.

For the ALBERTINA, the starting point is concrete: the research project is to continue. How its findings will affect future displays remains open. That will be the measure of whether women artists take centre stage for just a few months, or become a lasting part of what a museum presents as its history.