Opening: The ALBERTINA Museum – Celebrating 250 Years
Image: Albertina
May 11, 2026 | 6 PM (5.30 PM Doors)
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Please join us for the opening of The ALBERTINA Museum: Celebrating 250 Years. Presented in the 11th Floor Gallery at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, this special exhibition honors one of Europe’s foremost museums of graphic art and contemporary culture. In his inaugural keynote, Dr. Ralph Gleis will introduce the institution’s development, key collections, current program, and vision for the future. An audience Q&A, guided visit through the exhibition and reception for all participants is to follow.
ABOUT THE ALBERTINA MUSEUM
The museum’s origins trace back to Prince Albert Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Teschen, and Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria. United by a shared passion for art and Enlightenment ideals, they established an encyclopedic graphic art collection with the assistance of Count Giacomo Durazzo. Their acquisition of approximately 10,000 engravings in 1776 marked the founding moment of the Albertina. Following the end of the Habsburg monarchy in 1919, the collection became property of the Republic of Austria and was opened to the public. Despite significant damage to the building during World War II, the artworks were safeguarded, enabling the museum to reopen and flourish in the postwar era.
Today, the Albertina houses over one million works on paper, including master drawings by Dürer, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Rubens. Expanded through major acquisitions and collections, such as that of Prince Eugene of Savoy. From the early twentieth century onward, the museum incorporated works by artists including Gustav Klimt, Käthe Kollwitz, and Egon Schiele. Since the 1980s, the Albertina has increasingly prioritized contemporary art, continuing its tradition of growth and relevance.
Please find more information on the exhibition here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr. Ralph Gleis, born in the German city of Münster in 1973, pursued studies in art history, history, and sociology at the universities of Münster, Bologna, and Cologne, earning his doctorate in art history at the University of Cologne with a dissertation on Anton Romako in 2008. Initial employment as a gallery assistant and as a writer for an art journal preceded his shift to museum work. He then held research assistant posts at the German Historical Museum in Berlin and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp before assuming a research associate position at the Haus der Geschichte, a museum for the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, in Bonn. 2009 saw Gleis move to Vienna, where he joined the team of the Wien Museum as Curator of Painting and Graphics until 1900 and subsequently led the “New Permanent Exhibition” project as Curator of Sculpture. This was followed by his 2017 appointment as head of the Berlin State Museums’ Alte Nationalgalerie, whose newly created directorial post he assumed in 2022. Ralph Gleis became Director General of the ALBERTINA Museum on 1 January 2025.
EVENING PROGRAM
5.30 PM | Doors open
6 PM | Opening remarks
Followed by a reception