For over seven decades, the Austrian Graphic Arts Competition has stood for openness, experimentation, and artistic freedom. The exhibition at the Museum im Zeughaus brings together current positions in contemporary graphic art and shows how vibrant and diverse this traditional format remains to this day.
In 1952, 73 years ago, Tyrolean artist Paul Flora initiated the Austrian Graphic Arts Competition as an open competition with no set themes. The only conditions were the medium, format, and date of creation: works had to be created on paper, measure no more than 1.5 by 1.5 meters, and be no more than three years old. This principle still applies today, and so the competition, now in its 39th edition in 2025, once again called on participants to indulge their creativity and experiment.
Twelve of the approximately 400 submissions were awarded a prize, and another four were purchased: Marianne Lang, Iris Dittler, Peter Fritzenwallner, Christoph Luger, Thomas Hörl, Nikolaus Gansterer, Ramona Schnekenburger, Annika Eschmann, Barbara Holub, Nico Schleicher, Christian Azzouni, Emma Peinhopf, Linda Artemis Bergstötter, Katharina Biser, Edith Hofer, and Julia Zastava thus follow in the footsteps of renowned prize winners from previous competitions such as Maria Lassnig, Gerhild Diesner, Arnulf Rainer, Martha Jungwirth, and Wolfgang Hollegha. The exhibition accompanying the competition—which will be shown this year at the Museum im Zeughaus—sheds light on the contemporary Austrian art scene. At the same time, it creates existential clearings in the global chaos of a present marked by anthropocene devastation.
December 5, 2025, to March 22, 2026
