KunstHausWien
1989-1991
Untere Weißgerberstraße 13, 1030 Vienna, Austria
Tel. 712 04 95
www.kunsthauswien.com
Suitable premises for a permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser’s paintings were found in the third district of Vienna, the building of the former furniture factory of the Thonet Brothers, built in 1892. The size of the building made it possible, not only to establish the Hundertwasser museum, but also to include space for alternating exhibitions of international stature in the planning.
The reconstruction, which involved integrating two buildings, was carried out from 1989 to 1991, with the Bank for Labour and Business under its General Director Walter Flöttl, acting as building sponsor.
Hundertwasser was careful to leave the old buildings substance untouched as far as possible. Towards the street, a porch was added whose windows provide additional light to the exhibition spaces; on the courtyard side a stairwell was added.
On April 9, 1991 KunstHausWien was officially opened; it was managed as a private enterprise, without any public funding or tax payers money from 1991 to 2008. Since 2008 KunstHausWien is one of four museums of Wien Holding.
The total space comes to about 4,000 sqm. On the ground floor there are the museum shop and a café-restaurant, apart from the cashier’s and coat-check spaces. On the first two upper floors a cross-section of Hundertwasser’s oeuvre is on display, including painting, graphics, tapestries and architectural models. The third and fourth floors are reserved for the international museum exhibitions.
