Description of the attraction
MUMOK stands for "Museum Moderner Kunst" - Museum of Contemporary Art of the Ludwig Foundation in Vienna. It is located in the museum quarter.
The museum has a collection of 7,000 works of modern art, including the main works of Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Gerhard Richter, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and others.
MUMOK was opened on September 20, 1962 as the "Museum of the 20th Century" in a Swiss garden. The building served as a former exhibition pavilion. The first director - the founder of the museum - was Werner Hofmann. Over the course of several years, he succeeded in acquiring significant pieces of classical Art Nouveau and in consistently building on the existing collection. From 1979 to 1989, art critic Dieter Ronte was the director of the museum.
At its current location, in the historic center of Vienna, the Museum of Modern Art opened its doors to visitors on September 15, 2001. The museum's cubic basalt building was designed by the architectural firm Ortner and Ortner. From the outside, the building looks like a dark, closed block, the roof is low and curved at the edges. The exhibition area of the museum is 4800 square meters and includes more than 7000 works.
Since its inception, the museum has considered its main mission to preserve and expand the collections of the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as to support innovative research. One of the most important tasks was and remains the desire to convey the historical and theoretical basis of art in public education in the form of publications and scientific events. The museum sees one of its main tasks in the thematic coordination of exhibitions that allow a deeper understanding of art.
As the largest museum in Austria, spanning the period since the advent of modernism, MUMOK contributes to the integration of important Austrian positions in an international context. As a government institution, the museum seeks to interact in solving social and political problems.
