Painters and architects, same fight
As early as 1892, a group of Austrian painters, led by Fritz von Uhde, Wilhelm Trübner, Franz von Stuck, Eugene Spiro and Arnold Böcklin, rejected the conformist artistic concepts of the time. In 1897, Josef Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt founded the Secession, a group of architects and visual artists that broke away from the Künstlerhaus. This artists' house had been built near Ringstraße, on Karlsplatz, between 1865 and 1868, by the Society of Austrian Artists, still active today, to exhibit contemporary painters. The Künstlerhaus has just undergone extensive renovation work, and was inaugurated in its new version in 2020. Today, this major cultural space in the capital is committed to making contemporary art accessible to all.
But at the end of the 19th century, this was not yet the case! The artists of the Secession turned their backs on it and built their own temple, in the same district, a masterly expression of the innovative art they intended to defend and develop. Their Secession Palace, designed to compete with the Künstlerhaus, remains one of Vienna's architectural gems.
But building such an avant-garde monument was not without its problems. Its architectural audacity and revolutionary vocation offended good society. The land granted by the city council was originally located at the corner of Ringstraße and Wollzeile. In the face of public outcry, a slightly more remote location had to be adopted. In the end, it was on the Wienzeile, near the Naschmarkt market, that Joseph Maria Olbrich erected, in the style that came to be known as Art Nouveau, a modern exhibition building, a sober and elegant white cube topped by a monumental dome of golden leaves, the Goldenes Krauthappel, which became the symbol of the Secession. The motto of the Secessionist artists is engraved in gold lettering on the pediment of its entrance portal: "To each age its art, to each art its freedom."
Embellishing everyday life, marking the urban landscape
The Secessionists - painters, architects, decorators, engravers, ceramists and glassmakers - set out to develop a total, plural art without distinction between the fine and decorative arts, in opposition to the neoclassical and historicist conservatism of the works shown at the Künstlerhaus. New curved, decorative, expressive and floral forms were experimented with. Gilding, ironwork and ceramics are invited to embellish the everyday environment. It was a tremendous creative effervescence. In painting as in architecture, the artists of the Secession left remarkable traces in the urban landscape, private spaces and museums. Works of art, decorative arts, tableware and furniture were all part of a new style that revolutionized aesthetics and still leaves its mark on the Viennese landscape, both public and private. A new art of living was born in the imperial city.
The Vienna Secession, officially founded in April 1897 to unite the country's creative forces, took up the challenge. It also set out to develop contacts with foreign artists and promote an international exchange of ideas, countering the nationalist impulses in Europe that the war would unfortunately soon exacerbate. It had thus succeeded in renewing the applied arts, in the spirit of total art. It was indeed a new, authentic artistic expression that she had opposed to the dusty art of the official Viennese salons. What's more, a new philosophy of life and great freedom were associated with the Secession. And art appears here as a means, in keeping with the Secessionist vocation, of breaking with the stereotypes at work at the time, the vector of an innovative conception of life, freed from mercantile opportunism. In Ver Sacrum no. 1, literary critic Hermann Bahr defined the aims of the Secession as follows: "Our art is not a battle of modern artists against the old, but the promotion of the arts against the hucksters who pass themselves off as artists and who have a commercial interest in preventing art from flourishing. Commerce or art, that's what's at stake in our Secession. This is not an aesthetic debate, but a confrontation between two states of mind."
Secession is dead, long live Secession!
But the desire to integrate the different arts and the desire to open up to the international scene were not to the taste of all Secessionists. A first split occurred in 1903, when Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann created a new association, the Wiener Werkstätte - Viennese Workshops - dedicated solely to the applied arts. Its success is still tangible today, and can be seen in a number of exhibitions. In 1905, a conflict broke out between secessionist "naturalist" (i.e. academic) artists, and a second split ensued. This time, some of the major founders jumped ship. Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser left the Secession, turning their backs on these naturalists who rejected the concept of the total work of art. Anton Nowak, one of the co-founders, remained president of the Secession for the next two years, but the revolutionary and creative impetus was no longer there. The Secession died out. But its Palace remains, and Vienna is home to secessionist jewels that attract and amaze visitors from all over the world.
The Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt
This work, one of Gustav Klimt's most famous, was executed in 1902 as part of the Secession Palace 's exhibition in tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven. The exhibition opened with Klimt's monumental frieze, 34 m wide and 2 m high, installed in the entrance hall. With this work, in this masterly pictorial symphony, Klimt offers his ornamental and abundant score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, performed at the time by Richard Wagner. Klimt's virtuosity magnificently echoes that of Beethoven's masterpiece.
Klimt's frieze was intended to be removed and stored after the exhibition. But an art lover decided to acquire it. In 1903, the frieze was detached from the wall in seven pieces to join its owner's collection. In 1973, the Republic of Austria purchased the work and restored it, making it accessible to the public once again. Since 1986, it has been installed in a dedicated room in the basement of the Secession Palace. In 2020, to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, a musical dimension was added to the visual contemplation of the work. The fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony, performed by the Wiener Symphoniker, can now be heard through headphones.
While the frieze is the most famous work in the Palais de la Sécession, it would be a shame not to visit the upper floors, reserved for temporary exhibitions of daring contemporary artists, in keeping with the original vocation of the Sécession. Almost twenty exhibitions are scheduled each year, spread over 1,000 m². Guided tours, including the Beethoven Frieze , are available. And in the museum store, you'll find fine reproductions of details from the frieze, as well as books on Gustav Klimt, some in French.
Secession in architecture
Involving architecture, the Secession added more palaces to the imperial capital. Gothic, Neo-Gothic, Baroque and Neo-Baroque were joined by a new style that exploded across Europe, under a variety of influences and names: Jugenstil in Germany, Neuwe Kunst in Holland, Art Nouveau and Art Deco in Belgium, Art Nouveau in France or Art Nouille to its detractors, Stile Liberty in Italy, Modernismo in Spain. The explosion of this style gave European cities, from Berlin to Nancy, from Vienna to Barcelona, buildings of outstanding beauty.
Viennese Art Nouveau, or Sezessionstil, mobilized leading architects. While Joseph Maria Olbrich designed the Secession Palace, Otto Wagner was responsible for the Postal Savings Bank, the Majolica House and the Medallion House, the former subway stations on Karlsplatz and the Imperial Pavilion in Hietzing, the Villa Wagner, and theChurch of St. Leopold am Steinhof by Otto Wagner, the city's first modern church, among other masterpieces. Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos also contributed. The Viennese Secession style is characterized by clear lines, symmetry, sobriety and functionality, ornate facades, metal cladding, gilded or multicolored stucco. The effervescence of Viennese Art Nouveau was halted by the war. Later, Vienna dared to experiment with other urban innovations. Red Vienna developed pioneering and remarkable social housing. And the city of Vienna continues to give a hand to original and inspired architects and artists, as it did with Hundertwasser in the 1980s. Today, pioneering eco-neighborhoods are springing up, participatory buildings are springing up and even the incredible Hoho, the world's tallest wooden tower at 24 storeys.
Major artists
In addition to the main representatives of the Secession mentioned below, the following artists are also closely or distantly associated with it: Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Adolf Loos, Leo Putz and František Bílek. Don't miss a visit to the Belvedere Palace, home to the world's largest collection of Klimt's works. Don't miss: Gustav Klimt: The Kiss (1907) and Judith I (1901), by Egon Schiele: Der Rainerbub (1910), by Oskar Kokoschka: Portrait of the painter Karl Moll (1913) and by Koloman Moser: Self-Portrait (1916).
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), painter and printmaker, co-founder in 1897 of the Secession and of the magazine Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring or Migration), the movement's official organ from 1897 to 1903. Klimt presided over the Secession and directed exhibitions at the Secession Palace until 1905. Klimt is known for his female nudes, allegories of ancient myths richly ornamented and teeming with symbolism, inspired by symbolism and Freud's psychoanalysis.
Otto Wagner (1841-1918), architect, joined the Vienna Secession in 1898, and designed a number of remarkable Art Nouveau buildings marking Vienna's urban landscape.
Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), architect and co-founder of the Secession, his main work is the Palais Stoclet in Brussels.
Otto Eckmann (1865-1902), painter and engraver, one of the leading exponents of the floral Jugendstil, creator of an alphabet that became the classic Jugendstil typeface.
Josef Maria Olbrich (1867-1908), architect and co-founder of the Vienna Secession, designed the Secession Palace and other major works in Darmstadt, Germany.
Koloman Moser (1868-1918), painter and designer, co-founder of the Vienna Secession, set designer for many of the Secessionist exhibitions.
