Love modernist design? Don’t miss this exhibition at this storied Austrian hotel

Considering the owners of one of Austria’s most prestigious hotels personally greet arrivals and wave off departures at any hour, it comes as little surprise that equal care is given to what surrounds their guests. High in the altitudes of Lech, Hotel Almhof Schneider has presided over the Alpine landscape for almost a century – since 1929, to be precise.

Current fourth-generation owners Gerold and Katia Schneider are no strangers to their family’s drive to preserve the hotel’s heritage while ensuring its future legacy. Their former life leading a small architectural practice between Vienna and Salzburg remains palpable in the way they operate the hotel, guiding sensitive restoration projects and initiatives, including the gallery and exhibition space Kunstraum Zug and the artist’s studio Werkraum Zug.

Beyond its considered permanent art and design collection – which includes (among others) a James Turrell Skyspace, botanical paintings by local artist Paul Renner and a whimsical fireplace by Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ducrot – the hotel now introduces a temporary exhibition focused on 20th-century art and furniture, developed in collaboration with Rajan Bijlani.

The British-Indian collector and curator is known for opening the doors of his north London home, once the studio of British ceramicist Emmanuel Cooper, to host intimate showcases that extend the site’s creative spirit. In a similar vein, through ‘Provenance’ at the Almhof Schneider, traditional exhibition parameters are gently dissolved: furniture and objects are distributed throughout the hotel, allowing guests to encounter them naturally.

‘Provenance’ at the Almhof Schneider

The exhibition’s title derives from American artist Amie Siegel’s 2013 film of the same name, which traces the migration of Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh furniture into Western collecting circuits. At its core is a reflection on how objects, ideas and aesthetics travel across continents, cultures and domestic lives, expanding the confines of traditional genres.

In ‘Provenance’, the structural clarity of Swiss-French modernism is reframed through movements of migration. British potter Lucie Rie, for example, who trained in Vienna before relocating to London in 1938, developed a modernist sensibility shaped by the city yet deeply attuned to the natural world. A highlight here is an early teacup and saucer from her Vienna years (c. 1936), underscoring the exhibition’s themes of continuity and rupture.

Across the showcase, Bijlani’s curation centres on objects with what he describes as ‘unusually clear lived histories’, spanning rare early-production pieces by Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret – conceived for Chandigarh and produced through local craft traditions using solid teak and Indian rosewood – and an early charcoal drawing of a Seated Figure by German-British painter Frank Auerbach, executed in 1951; his rapid, expressive lines then foreshadowing one of the most important art movements of the post-war generation (The School of London).

Much like the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk – the German term for a ‘total work of art’ that synthesises multiple disciplines – ‘Provenance’ brings together diverse artistic lineages, allowing their many origins to converge and shape new dialogues between objects and landscapes, linking the Himalayas to the Alps, Vienna to London, and the origins of modernism to its enduring afterlives.

Looking ahead, the Schneiders will soon unveil Haus W – a sensitively restored 16th-century chalet in nearby Zug, reimagined for year-round stays and conceived as both a home and a platform for artists-in-residence. It will house a Le Corbusier desk – widely believed to be a unique example.

‘Provenance’ at The Almhof Schneider is on until mid-April 2026. The hotel is located at Tannberg 59, 6764 Lech, Austria