VIENNA.- A new audio tour at the Upper Belvedere will focus on works by female artists from the collection.

The Belvedere is joining forces with renowned British art historian, author, and curator Katy Hessel to present an English-language audio tour from the Museums Without Men series. Hessel is known for her highly acclaimed podcast The Great Women Artists and book The Story of Art Without Men, which highlight the contributions of female artists in art history. In her latest project, the Museums Without Men series, Hessel gives unique audio tours of museums—in this case, the Belvedere’s collection—focusing on artworks by female artists. The audio tour will be released on February 24th, 2025 and is available HERE. The feminist audio tour can be listened to in the museum using the Smartify app on your cell phone, as well as at home or on the go, to open up new perspectives.

Stella Rollig, General Director of the Belvedere: We are delighted to have gained a strong voice in Katy Hessel to focus on the works of women artists in our collection. Since 2017, the Belvedere has been actively committed to opening up new perspectives on art history and making the art of women more visible.

A new look at the Belvedere’s collection

As part of the tour, Katy Hessel draws attention to eleven outstanding works by female artists from different centuries and genres:

• Anna Maria Punz, Still Life with Jug and Tulip (1754)
• Pauline von Koudelka-Schmerling, Wreath of Flowers with Madonna Relief (1834)
• Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Adolescentia (1903)
• Helene Funke, Dreams (1913)
• Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Self-Portrait with Comb (1926)
• Erika Giovanna Klien, Diving Bird (1939)
• Maria Lassnig, Double Self-Portrait with Camera (1974)
• Margot Pilz, Seconds Sculpture (1979)
• Kiki Kogelnik, Triangle (1980)
• VALIE EXPORT, The Doppelganger (2010)
• Marusa Sagadin, B-Girls, Go! (2018)

Katy Hessel on the collaboration: I am delighted to be working with the Belvedere on this project. It is important to me to make the work of female artists more visible, to anchor their place in art history, and to highlight them in museum collections. The selected works not only offer new access to the Belvedere’s collection but also, I hope, inspire and stimulate reflection. I hope that this audio tour from the Museums Without Men series will also take visitors on an exciting journey and lead to a deeper understanding of the women who have shaped art history.

No prior registration is required; admission will be granted on a “first come, first served” basis.

Feminist projects and exhibitions at the Belvedere

The collaboration with Katy Hessel is part of the Belvedere’s comprehensive commitment to feminist art and its representation. In 2025, the museum will also present several other projects that deal with the role of women artists in the past and present:

• Radical! Women Artists and Modernism 1910–1950 (June 18 – October 12, 2025): This exhibition brings together in dialog more than sixty female artists from over twenty countries.

• Forty Years of Art with a Sense of Purpose (March 2025): A Public Program series event and film program to mark the anniversary of a legendary exhibition at the site now known as the Belvedere 21, accompanied by an oral history project.

• Ashley Hans Scheirl: From September 19, the Belvedere 21 is showing a major exhibition of works by a pioneer of the queer-feminist and transgender counterculture.

• Feminist Futures Forever (Fall 2026): This international group exhibition takes as its starting point the 1985 show Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn (Art with a Sense of Its Own) at the Museum of the 20th Century and focuses on forward-looking feminist perspectives.

Other audio tours and programs

The Belvedere offers numerous audio tours that present the collections from new perspectives. A notable example is the tour Turning the Page: Representations of Blackness, which explores the representation of Black people in art