Karlheinz Essl is an art collector and museum founder. He founded and managed one of Europe’s largest and best-known DIY store chains. Starting in the 1970s, he and his wife Agnes built up the Essl Collection, one of the largest and most important collections of contemporary art. In 1999, he opened the Essl Museum, one of the first private art museums in Europe, which hosted more than 200 exhibitions by 2016, many of which he curated himself. In addition to international art from Europe, the USA, and Asia, his exhibition and collection activities focus on Austrian art after 1945.

The exhibition “Mein Nitsch” (My Nitsch), which he curated at the nitsch museum, is testimony to a decades-long artist-collector relationship that began in the mid-1980s. At the invitation of the Essl family, Nitsch held his 38th painting action in 1996 at the Schömer House, the Essl family’s former art and business headquarters, and later, another action at the newly built Essl Museum.

Beyond the classic artist-collector relationship, Hermann Nitsch and Karlheinz Essl also developed an intense friendship. They met frequently in private, traveled together, and engaged in an intense exchange that went far beyond everyday life. Karlheinz Essl and Hermann Nitsch interviewed each other, described their worldviews to each other, and discussed existential questions.

Exclusive: After the talk, a print by Hermann Nitsch and three signed exhibition catalogs will be raffled off among those present.

Afterwards, we invite you to join us for bread and wine, and a relaxed get together.
Admission is free. Registration is requested.

*Almuth Spiegler has kindly agreed to take over the curator’s talk originally planned with Michael Fleischhacker.