Secession Hall (now Museum) designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich, Vienna, Austria

            The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, and others.   Although Otto Wagner is widely recognized as an important member of the Vienna Secession he was not a founding member.  The Secession artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus with its traditional orientation toward Historicism.  

The group earned considerable credit for its exhibition policy, which made the French Impressionists somewhat familiar to the Viennese public. The 14th Secession exhibition, designed by Josef Hoffmann and dedicated to Ludwig van Beethoven, was especially famous. A statue of Beethoven by Max Klinger stood at the center, with Klimt's Beethoven frieze mounted around it.

Unlike other movements, there is not one style that unites the work of all artists who were part of the Vienna Secession.  The Secession building can be considered the icon of the movement. Above its entrance was placed the phrase "Der Zeit ihre Kunst; Der Kunst ihre Freiheit" ("To every age its art; To art its freedom").  Secession artists were concerned, above all, with exploring the possibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition.  They hoped to create a new style that owed nothing to historical influence.  In this way they were very much in keeping with the iconoclastic spirit of turn-of-the-century Vienna (the time and place that also saw the publication of Freud's first writings). 

Along with painters and sculptors, several prominent architects became associated with The Vienna Secession.  Architects focused on bringing purer geometric forms into the designs of their buildings. The three main architects of this movement were Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, and Otto Wagner. 

In 1898, the group's exhibition house was built in the vicinity of Karlsplatz.  Designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich, the exhibition building soon became known simply as "the Secession" (die Sezession).  The secession building displayed art from several other influential artists such as Max Klinger, Eugene Grasset, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Arnold Bocklin.

Taken in: Österreich / Wien / Wien / Wieden (show map)

Taken on: August 7, 2009

Sets appears in: • Cityscapes & Buildings • UNESCO World Heritage Sites more » • Austria « less

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