---
type: exposition
title: Hans Haacke
language: en
url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/hans-haacke"
---

# Hans Haacke

## Retrospective

![The artwork Messages (1969) consists of a fax machine on a plain metal table that continuously prints text on paper. The printed messages form a chaotic pile of paper on the floor.](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/header_cropped_1920x480_fp/public/2025-04/Hans%20Haacke_Nachrichten_1969_korr_0.jpg.webp?itok=5FH3pyQf) 

**Duration:** 1 March 2025 - 9 June 2025

Hans Haacke (b. 1936) is a legend of political conceptual art—and his work remains strikingly relevant in today’s world. As a founding figure of artistic institutional critique, Haacke redefined the relationship between art and society and profoundly influenced generations of artists.

Beginning in the 1960s, Haacke first explored biological, physical, and ecological before shifting his focus to socio-political structures. His work unflinchingly addresses abuses of power, mechanisms of exclusion and inequality, historico-political disruptions; the entanglements of public institutions, politics, and economics, while also confronting anti-democratic tendencies.

This exhibition is an invitation to rediscover Haacke’s art and its relevance to the pressing questions of our time: How do capital, ideology, and history shape our lives? What images, rhetoric, and manipulative tactics does nationalist populism employ? How about the complicity of the art world, but also the critical potential of art? With a comprehensive selection from all periods, from 1959 to the present, the retrospective highlights the versatility of Haacke’s oeuvre. In addition to numerous iconic works, it includes in particular those projects that Haacke developed specifically for the Austrian context.  

*The exhibition is being held in cooperation with* [*Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt*](https://www.schirn.de/en/)*.*  

Curated by Luisa Ziaja.  
Assistant Curator: Katarina Lozo and Theresa Dann-Freyenschlag

### [Belvedere 21](https://www.belvedere.at/en/visit/belvedere-21)

**Opening hours:** Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am - 6 pm; Late Night: Thursday, 11 am - 9 pm

**Address:** Belvedere 21, 1030 Vienna ([Getting there](<https://www.google.com/maps?q=Belvedere 21,+Arsenalstraße 1,+1030+Vienna>))

[Tickets](https://www.belvedere.at/en/tickets?location%5B0%5D=4)

##### In cooperation with 

- [derstandard.at](http://derstandard.at/)
- [Parnass](https://www.parnass.at/)
- [Logo Ö1](https://oe1.orf.at/club)

## Impressions

- ![Hans Haacke, Geburts- und Wohnprofil von Galerie- besuchern, Teil 1 und 2, 1969–70, Installationsansicht Belvedere 21 — Hans Haacke, Gallery-Goers’ Birthplace and Residence Profile, Part 1 and 2, 1969–70, Installation view at Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000259_web.jpg.webp?itok=wo_rnB6I)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000214_web.jpg.webp?itok=sFHyYe-6)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000133_web.jpg.webp?itok=5S5gnVgr)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000115_web.jpg.webp?itok=DPfEDida)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000064_web.jpg.webp?itok=9GwT21xz)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000052_web.jpg.webp?itok=09S7hzMR)
- ![Ausstellungsansicht "Hans Haacke. Retrospektive", Belvedere 21 — Installation view "Hans Haacke. Retrospective", Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000007_web.jpg.webp?itok=hZM-Ingm)
- ![Hans Haacke, Gerichtetes Wachstum, 1970–72, Wachsende Bohnen im Belvedere 21 — Hans Haacke, Directed Growth, 1970–72, beans growing at Belvedere 21 — Photo: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_27_Belvedere_000324_web.jpg.webp?itok=KDIwNCz8)
- ![Hans Haacke, Geschenkter Gaul, 2014 im Skulpturengarten des Belvedere 21 — Hans Haacke, Gift Horse, 2014, sculpture garden at Belvedere 21 — Foto: Kunst-Dokumentation.com, Manuel Carreon Lopez / Belvedere, Wien](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/equal_height_slider_1x/public/2025-02/2025_02_26_Belvedere_000067_web.jpg.webp?itok=phszAxRh)

## The Exhibition 

The roughly chronological exhibition kicks off with Haacke’s physical, biological, and ecological experiments from the 1960s, including his famous “real time systems” such as the *Large Condensation Cube* (1963–67). They demonstrate Haacke’s engagement with the ZERO group as well as with approaches from Minimalism, Op Art, and Kinetic Art, but most of all the lasting influence of interdisciplinary systems theories and the principles of cybernetics. Haacke subsequently transferred his practice of demonstrating processes and phenomena to economic, social, and political systems, and expanded it byan institution-critical line of inquiry based on factual observations.

The visualization of conditions and structures through the evaluation of mostly publicly accessible data often triggered far-reaching debates. For example, *Shapolsky et al. Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, a Real-Time Social System, as of May 1, 1971* (1971) revealed corporate machinations in the interest of real estate speculation. Meanwhile, *Manet-PROJEKT '74* (1974) used the provenance of Édouard Manet’s *Bundle of Asparagus* (1880) to reveal Nazi continuities in the post-war era. An engagement with Nazi history, its continuities after 1945, and its impact on the political reality of the present is constant throughout the work of the artist, who was born into National Socialist Germany and witnessed its immediate aftermath.

With the installation *And You Were Victorious After All* (1988), developed for steirischer Herbst in Graz, Haacke reconstructs a Nazi victory monument and transforms it into a memorial for the victims of National Socialism, thus making a significant contribution to a new culture of remembrance in Austria. His award-winning contribution to the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale, *GERMANIA* (1993), transformed it into a sensational field of rubble by breaking up the marble floor laid during the Nazi era as a commentary on the past and present of the newly reunified Germany. On the occasion of the installation, Haacke published the essay [“Gondola! Gondola!”](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/2025-02/B-GONDOLA-EN.pdf) in the accompanying catalogue. The artist developed one of his best-known works in 2000 for an inner courtyard of the Reichstag building in Berlin: he countered the *völkisch* ideology of the façade inscription “Dem Deutschen Volke” (to the German people) with the dedication “Der Bevölkerung” (To The Population). Conceived for public spaces, the banner and poster work *We (All) Are the People* (2003/17 – ongoing) references the right-wing appropriation of the Peaceful Revolution slogan and reappropriates it as an appeal for cultural diversity and tolerance.

[Essay “Gondola! Gondola!”](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/2025-03/2025-03-17-GONDOLA-EN.pdf)

[List of works and texts](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/2025-03/Works%20and%20texts-EN.pdf)

- ![Hans Haacke, Germania, German Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 1993 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2024-09/93GERMANIA_visitors_%234B635B.jpg.webp?itok=Vv5MqL-g)
- ![Fotografie eines Müllhaufens am Strand — Hans Haacke, Monument to Beach Pollution, 1970 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Hans%20Haacke_Denkmal%20der%20Strandverschmutzung_1970.jpg.webp?itok=VTaGdv3G)
- ![The artwork Messages (1969) consists of a fax machine on a plain metal table that continuously prints text on paper. The printed messages form a chaotic pile of paper on the floor. — Hans Haacke, News, 1969 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025. Photo: Ellen Wilson](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-04/Hans%20Haacke_Nachrichten_1969_korr_0.jpg.webp?itok=lr-X0M2d)
- ![Art installation titled Blue Sail (1964–1965) by Hans Haacke consisting of a large, semi-transparent blue sail suspended from thin threads. A fan is placed under the sail, creating air movement and gently setting the sail in motion. — Hans Haacke, Blue Sail, 1964–1965 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025. Photo: Wolfgang Neeb](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2024-11/Hans%20Haacke%2C%20Blue%20Sail%2C%201964-1965.jpg.webp?itok=e5NSBKYU)
- ![Hans Haacke with his Wave sculpture — Hans Haacke with his Wave sculpture, 1965 — Rudi Blesh papers, ca. 1980–83, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution — © Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Foto: Eric Pollitzer](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Bio_1_Hans_Haacke_Wave_Smithsonian%20_photo_Eric-Pollitzer.jpg.webp?itok=a31WCIAf)
- ![Hans Haacke's minimalist work Large Condensation Cube (1963–1967): transparent Plexiglas cube containing water. Condensation forms on the inner walls of the cube due to natural temperature and humidity fluctuations. — Hans Haacke, Large Condensation Cube, 1963–67 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2024-11/Hans%20Haacke%2C%20Gro%C3%9Fer%20Kondensationsw%C3%BCrfel%2C%201963-1967.jpg.webp?itok=RVqm9SX_)
- ![Farbfotografie Am Eisernen Tor von Hans Haacke Und Ihr habt doch gesiegt, 1988 — Hans Haacke, And You Were Victorious After All, 1988 — Generali Foundation Collection - Permanent Loan to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg © Generali Foundation, Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025. Photo: Archiv Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Hans%20Haacke%2C%20Und%20Ihr%20habt%20doch%20gesiegt%2C%201988_2001_highres_0.jpg.webp?itok=H9WV1wUS)
- ![installation view at the exhibition Information — Hans Haacke, MoMA Poll, 1970, installation view at the exhibition Information, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York — © 2024 Photo Scala, Florence / Art Resource, Digital image, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Photographic Archive / Photo: Hans Haacke](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Biografie_5_MOMA-Poll_1970_Hans%20Haacke_MoMA.jpg.webp?itok=22WKEdpz)
- ![A garland of white balloons rising up against a blue background — Hans Haacke, Sky Line, 1967 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Wien 2024](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2024-11/Hans%20Haacke%2C%20Sky%20Line%2C%201967.jpg.webp?itok=0WtVHBrN)
- ![Black and white photograph of two men wearing suits in front of a large painting — Hans Haacke, Photographic Notes, documenta 2, 1959 — Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Hans Haacke / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna 2025](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2024-11/Hans%20Haacke%2C%20Fotonotizen%2C%20documenta%202%2C%201959.jpg.webp?itok=OljhG60F)

## Biography 

![Hans Haacke, self-portrait — Courtesy the artist](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Biografie_7_Self-Portrait_Press.jpg.webp?itok=6b9eI5JW)

Hans Haacke (b. 1936 in Cologne) has lived and worked in New York since 1965. After studying at the Staatliche Werkakademie in Kassel (1956–60) and spending time abroad in Paris, Philadelphia, and New York, he taught for 35 years as a professor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Additionally, he was a guest professor at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg and the Gesamthochschule in Essen, as well as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds honorary doctorates in fine arts from Oberlin College, Ohio, Bauhaus University Weimar, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Since the early 1960s, Haacke has participated in numerous international group and solo exhibitions, as well as in documenta 5, 7, 8, and X (1972, 1982, 1987, 1997) and the Biennale di Venezia (1976, 1993, 2009, 2015). He has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association of America, the Deutscher Kritikerpreis for 1990, the Golden Lion for the German Pavilion at the 1993 Biennale di Venezia (together with Nam June Paik), the Kurt Eisner Cultural Foundation Art Prize, the Helmut Kraft Foundation Prize for the Promotion of the Visual Arts, the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association, the Peter Weiss Prize of the City of Bochum, the Bremen Roland Prize for Art in Public Space, the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, and the Goslarer Kaiserring award.

[Comprehensive biography](https://www.belvedere.at/en/haacke-biography)

## Videos 

**Hans Haacke (Part 1)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 2)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 3)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 4)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 5)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 6)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 7)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 8)**

**Hans Haacke (Part 9)**