Mission

mumok aims to preserve, expand, and explore the collection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art acquired since its founding and to present it to the public based on the latest academic and museological findings and methods.
 

One core objective is to communicate art and its historical and theoretical foundations and promote discourse in the form of publications and academic events.
 

With the core of its collection focusing on Pop Art and Photorealism from the Austrian Ludwig foundation; Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme from the Hahn Collection; Vienna Actionism; and Performance, Concept, and Minimal Art as well as the movements built on these from the nineteen-eighties to the present day, the museum uniquely brings together art based on reality with art that has been analyzing society and the institution since the nineteen-sixties.
 

Our acquisition policy aims to deepen and broaden the key aspects of the collection. This strategic expansion and updating is achieved by integrating into our exhibition program newer approaches, previously underrepresented female artists, and art from East European countries and the global context.
 

The collection’s exhibitions as well as the publications and events highlight and analyze the paths of development between the historical avant-gardes and subsequent art movements up to the present day. Key artistic approaches in the collection are presented in retrospective solo exhibitions, while questions surrounding art’s social development are addressed in large survey exhibitions.
 

One of the museum’s main tasks is to thematically coordinate and present the collection and special exhibitions in order to further understand the collection and to fulfil the museum’s role as a platform for dialogue between art history and what is happening in the current art scene.
 

As Austria’s largest museum exhibiting international art produced since modernity, mumok fosters the integration of seminal approaches in Austrian art into the international sphere all the while imparting an international imperative within its local milieu.