Viennese

Secessionism

Poster for first Secessionist Exhibition, Gustav Klimt

Death and Life, Klimt

“Our Secession is not a confrontation of young artists against old ones, but a struggle to revalue artists against hawkers that make believe they are artists and have a commercial interest in preventing art from flourishing.”

» Hemann Bahr, Philosophical Godfather of Secessionism

Secessionist Principles“The break with the Fathers” in the truest Oedipal sense. They are not just a “Salon de Refuses” but a new “Roman secessio plebis.”

They also clamed a “regenerative function” as the name of their journal, Ver Sacrum (Holy spring) suggests. It was based on a “Roman rite of consecrating youth in times of national danger.” They wanted to save culture from their elders.

Another major aim was to “speak the truth about modern man” or in the words of architect Otto Wagner, “to show modern man his true face.” They saw it as an identity quest.

Lastly they felt art should provide an asylum from the pressures of modern life. According to Josef Olbrich the central idea of architecture was to, “erect a temple of art which would offer the art-lover a quiet , elegant place of refuge.”

Water snakes I, Klimt

Key Figures in Secessionism

Gustav Klimt

Otto Wagner

Josef Olbrich

Josef Hoffmann

Adolph Loos (functionalism)

Secessionist Building 1898 Joseoh Maria Olbrich

After leaving the Künstlerhaus a group of artists organized to form Vienna Secession in 1897

The next year they held their first exhibition with the catalogue and poster designed by Gustav Klimt

The second exhibition was held the same year in this newly designed kunsthalle.

Secessionist Building (masonry and metal)

Completed in 1898 by Joseph Maria Olbrich

The Secessionist building was designed to resemble a classic temple

Note the symmetry and single central dome

The Art Nouveau decorations on the walls and frieze were typical of the Viennese Secessionist movement.

The Dome is constructed of gilded laurel leaves , another classic symbol.

“Ver Sacrum” or “Holy Spring” is on the wall the right of the door which was also the name of the Secessionist journal.

Close –up of Dome

Entrance Door:

“Galere Architektur Plastik”

“To the Age its Art, To the Art its Freedom”

The Majolikahaus (1898-99)

Otto Wagner Wagner is the most well known of the Secessionist Architects.

Entirely covered in tiles this explosion of pink and green is a perfect example of Secessionist design in architecture.

Wagner, who idolized Klimt, designed buildings that united three principles:

The primary function as a determinant of form

The candid use of modern materials

A commitment to the use of the language of modernity as interpreted by the Secessionists

The Medallion House(1898-99)

Otto Wagner(1841-1918)

This and the adjoining Majolikahaus were erected to consciously break from the Renaissance palace model used to design much of the Ringstrasse.

Flamboyant gilded medallions depict female forms on the walls of this apartment block

The statue crowning the Medallion house could not be a clearer statement of the Secessionist desire to break away and speak to the new modern man; a man Wagner wrote moved with ”painful uncertainty.”

Karlplatz Subway Station, Vienna

Otto Wagner, 1900

Adolph Loos and Functionalism

The Steiner BuildingLack of ornementation, “remove style from archetecture” and “purify the visual environment.”

Empahsis on function

“The work of art is the private affair of the artist.”

Detail from entrance area

Gustav Klimt

The son of an engraver he began his education traditionally as an apprentice but soon entered the more modern course of formal vocational schooling at the School of Arts and Crafts established in 1868.

He emerged from the school just as the Ringstrasse program was finishing and he had an opportunity to work on two of the new buildings, the Burgtheater and Museum of Art History.

Although a young master of the old school he quickly assumed leadership of the revolt in visual arts. They began to break with traditional artistic philosophy to form the Secessionist Movement.

This philosophy was quickly embraced by the literary and political liberals of the day.

His inspirations included Classical and Preclassical Roman, Greek, Byzantine and Egyptian art forms, Impressionism, Freud, Nietzsche, Wagner, Shopenhauer and archeology.

1862-1918

“If you cannot please everyone with your art, please a few. To please all is bad.” Schiller

Inscription at the top of Nuda Veritas by Klimt

The Kiss Painted during his “golden period” this is considered one of his best and certainly most well known works .

The Beethoven Frieze:

“Poetry”

The fresco was part of the 14th Exhibition of the “Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession” which was on view to the public from April 15 to June 27, 1902.

The director of the exhibit, Josef Hoffmann, conceived of the exhibition as a homage to Beethoven and as a unified single work of art not a display of many works.

Gustav Klimt’s Frieze was in the main hall and only one component of the exhibition which also included Max Klinger’s statue of Beethoven.

The Beethovan Frieze:

“Yearning for Happiness”

The theme of the frieze is drawn from Richard Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven's IX Symphony.

It is meant to be read as a coherent narrative.

It was originally designed as a decoration for the duration of the exhibit and was meant to be destroyed afterwards.

It was, however, purchased by a collector who ensured that the frieze and its supporting reed, plaster and lathe structure was cut into 8 pieces and protected.

It was repurchased and restored by the Austrian government and returned to its original site in 1986.

The Beethovan Frieze:“Sufferings of Weak Humanity” and “Their Pleas to the Well-Armed Strongman” and “Mercy and Ambition”

The Beethovan Frieze:

“The Hostile Powers”

From Left to Right: “Three Gorgons” “The Giant Typhoeus: “Sickness, Madness, Death”, “Voluptuousness, Debauchery, and Wantonness”, “Gnawing Grief”, “The Longing and Aspirations of Humanity Pass Overhead”

Detail: “The Giant Typhoeus”

Note: Mother of Pearl insets for eyes

Detail: “Gnawing Grief”

The

Sto

cletfrie

ze

Industrialist Adolphe Stoclett commissioned Klimt and Hoffmann to create a palace in Brussels

Klimt painted a three piece mosaic of gold and precious stones to form the frieze

The collaboration between the two, artist and architect is a landmark moment and became the creed of the later Bauhaus movement unifying interior and exterior designs.

Expectation

Fulfi

llmen

t

After the Rain

Later in life Klimt found landscape painting which he found calming and meditative.

Birch Trees

He was also very impressed by Munch , Bonnard, and Matisse as well as Lautrec and the Fauvists.

Always reinventing himself he moved from Secessionism to Expressionism and embraced many of the new concepts of the day.

The Dancer, one of his later works, is a good example of this new style.

Equally interesting is Death and Life which won first prize in an international exhibition in Rome.

Grave of Anton Dvorak in Vyšerad Cemetary, Prague

Secessionism and its influence can be found all over Europe in many architectural and artistic examples.

Art Nouveau Apartment Building , Jewish Quarter Prague