The modernist, glass-and-steel Austria Pavilion, designed by Karl Schwanzer for Expo 58 in Brussels, was reborn as the 21er Haus in 2011, with exhibitions devoted to 20th and 21st century art, predominantly with an Austrian focus. Adolf Krischanitz left his clean aesthetic imprint on the light-filled, open-plan gallery, which sits just south of the Oberes Belvedere in the Schweizergarten.
The gallery's dynamic approach embraces an artist in residence scheme and a changing rota of contemporary exhibitions. On permanent display is a peerless collection of sculptures by Viennese artist Fritz Wotruba (1907-1975), many of which deconstruct the human form into a series of abstract, geometric shapes that have more than an element of cubism about them.
