Vienna at the end of the 19th century was a hotbed of radical design and artistic controversy. Likely its greatest claim to fame now is the Gustav Klimt mural frieze in the basement - an homage to Beethoven's 9th symphony. The building still serves as an avant garde art gallery as seen by the large photograph of a naked woman hanging at its front entrance this summer. Its golden dome of laurel leaves (also called the big cabbage) stands out as one of its more noticeable features.Ībove the door is the motto of the Secessionist Movement which translated into English is "To every age its Art. The Secessionist building was designed to act as an exhibition hall for the newly formed Secessionist movement. Olbrich is the subject of a special exhibit at the Leopold Museum this summer (see my previous blog posting on that museum). It was designed and built by Joseph Maria Olbrich in 1898. The Secession building is a key architectural icon and visual image of Vienna. Max Klinger (1857-1920): Beethoven statue.The iguanas framing the entrance door to the Secession Building in Vienna remind me of backpacking through Europe 20 years ago. It also proved fundamentally important to Klimt’s further development, as well as that of numerous other participating artists: the ideal of the interplay and aesthetic integration of all artistic disciplines and the collaboration tested in the Beethoven exhibition was successfully continued by the Wiener Werkstätte, among others. Today the Beethoven Frieze is considered one of Klimt’s key works and one of the high points of Viennese Art Nouveau. The XIVth exhibition drew nearly 60,000 visitors, thus becoming one of the Secession’s greatest public successes.An opening in the wall offered a view of Max Klinger’s Beethoven statue, indicating the interplay of architecture, painting (Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze) and sculpture (Klinger’s Beethoven) as soon as the visitor entered. The declared aim of the exhibition was to reunite the separate arts – architecture, painting, sculpture and music – under a common theme: the “work of art” was to emerge from the interplay of the design of the rooms, the wall paintings and sculpture. Klimt’s monumental wall cycle was located in the left-hand aisle, which visitors to the exhibition entered first. In addition to Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, wall paintings and decorations by Alfred Roller, Adolf Böhm, Ferdinand Andri and numerous other artists were presented. The exhibition centered around Max Klinger’s Beethoven statue placed in the main hall.A total of 21 artists collaborated on the exhibition under the direction of Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956).Gustav Klimt (1862-1918): Beethoven frieze.Max Klinger (1857-1920): Beethoven statue.President Carl Julius Rudolf Moll (1861-1945).Included a memorial dedicated to artists Giovanni Segantini.Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864-1933) exhibition room.The wall motifs, furniture and woodwork all deisgned by Hoffmann created a harmony between decoration and functionalism, and illustrated the Association’s concept of Gesamkunstwork (a harmony of the arts). The first exhibition also included an additional room designed by Josef Hoffmann called the ‘Ver Sacrum room’ which introduced for the first time ‘Secession style’ to the public. Contrary to the traditional salon-style arrangement of pictures of the Künstlerhaus which had painting hung vertically up to the ceiling, Olbrich and Hoffmann hung all the pictures at eye level against backgrounds of white, dark red and dark green. The exhibition was also revolutionary in its approach to exhibition forms of exhibition design, primarily the responsibility of Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) and Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908). It was considered a financial success by the organizers and received positive reviews from most critics.
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