Donation of the #Ploner Collection to the @belvederewien the #Universalmuseum Joanneum and the #Albertina

Within an extremely short period of time, the collector Dr. Heinz Ploner managed to compile an outstanding collection showcasing contemporary Austrian art. Heinz Ploner began to intensively immerse himself in art and systematically collect it in 1997, having achieved success in his profession as an economist. His focus on so-called “New painting in Austria”  encompassed substantial work groups by Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch, Hubert Scheibl, and Otto Zitko. Together with Erwin Bohatsch’s lyrical abstractions, they constitute the core areas of the collection. After Heinz Ploner’s unexpected death in 2011, his widow decided to donate large parts of the collection to the Belvedere. Comprising more than 100 works of art, most of which can be assigned to the genre of painting while they also include photographs and installations, this important donation will, from now on, complement the Belevedere’s holdings. The Joanneum will receive some 50 works to expand and complete the collection of the Neue Galerie Graz in line with its emphasis on abstract painting, whereas the collection’s works on paper will be donated to the Albertina. Regina Ploner thereby complies with the wish of her husband to make the works accessible to the general public and keep them alive while transporting a chapter of Austria’s history of art collecting. Donating the works to the Belvedere, the Universalmuseum Joanneum, and the Albertina will guarantee that they will be preserved in the best possible way and will forever commemorate Dr. Heinz Ploner as a collector.