From September 10, 2026, the WIENER AKTIONISMUS MUSEUM embarks on a challenging project: an exhibition of Otto Muehl’s artistic work. Over 150 of his paintings, objects, films and prints will be presented and put up for discussion. The exhibition traces Muehl’s artistic development—from the early 1960s up to his arrest and conviction in 1990—through six chapters. Beginning with Actionist painting and the destruction of the panel painting, through selected actions from the heyday of Viennese Actionism, to the extensive series of portraits of politicians—from Ho Chi Minh and Konrad Adenauer, via Charles de Gaulle and Moshe Dayan, to Mao Zedong and Prince Charles—, Muehl’s creative years prior to the commune form the first and most extensive part of the exhibition.

‘After 40 years as an exhibition curator, director of the Kunstforum and general director of the Albertina, exhibiting Otto Muehl is a major challenge for me. The weighing of aesthetic and arthistorical considerations and questions regarding the consequences of a life lived on the brink is a delicate balancing act, and one that significantly influences the current assessment of this influential Actionist’s art. The primary aim of this exhibition is to empower the visitors of the WIENER AKTIONISMUS MUSEUM to form their own judgement of Otto Muehl’s art.”

– Prof. Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schröder, Director of the WIENER AKTIONISMUS MUSEUM