In the Museum of Contemporary Art and at stations in other museum departments, you will find a cross-section of the most recent part of the Admont Abbey collection, which has been under construction since 1997. It consists of over 1000 works by around 180 Austrian artists, most of whom were born in the second half of the 20th century.
The first part of the exhibition represents the basis of the collection, from which all further strands have developed - Austrian painting from the 1980s onwards. The following sections of the exhibition are dedicated to various themes: life, death and resurrection, the multimedia work of art Zeitperlen (2005-2012) by Johannes Deutsch, aspects of seeing, works by Guillaume Bruère and Peter Unterthurner, which deal with medieval Madonnas.
Since its opening in 2003, the Admont Abbey Museum in its current form has been known for its dialog between ancient and contemporary art. The Abbey Library and the museum departments communicate with each other. Works from the art history and natural history collections are integrated into the exhibition: as originals, but above all as integrated elements in selected works of MADE FOR ADMONT commissioned art. They are the result of specific localization processes with reference to the region, Admont Abbey, the museum and its contents. The medium of photography plays a central role. The special collection JENSEITS DES SEHENS - Kunst verbindet Blinde und Sehende (Art connects the blind and the sighted) is a worldwide specialty in this area. These works of art, created since 2002, do not focus on visual perception.
In a separate exhibition area, the different strands of development of two artists who were important for the Styrian art scene in the post-war period become tangible: Hannes Schwarz (1926-2014) and Gustav Zankl (*1929).
With works by: Siegfried Anzinger, Erwin Bohatsch, Herbert Brandl, Uwe Bressnik, Guillaume Bruère, Adi Brunner, Hannelore Demel-Lerchster, Gunter Damisch, Johannes Deutsch, Christian Eisenbergr, Manfred Erjautz, Bruno Gironcoli, Maria Hahnenkamp, Julie Hayward, Michael Horsky, Dieter Huber, Lisa Huber, Judith Huemer, Nikola Irmer, Jakob Kaschauer, Alfred Klinkan, Sebastian Köpcke, Brigitte Kowanz, Christoph Lingg, Rudi Molacek, Alois Mosbacher, Tobias Pils, Arnulf Rainer, Lois Renner, Hubert Scheibl, Eva Schlegel, Hubert Schmalix, Ruth Schnell, Hannes Schwarz, Deborah Sengl, Josef Stammel, Norbert Trummer, Peter Unterthurner, Walter Vopava, Volker Weinhold, Franz West, Heidrun Widmoser, Erwin Wurm, Gustav Zankl, Klaus-Dieter Zimmer, Otto Zitko.