Gustav Klimt and the Viennese Secession
A break with the Künstlerhaus, a pavilion-manifesto, international exhibitions, the Beethoven Friesland - then a collective departure in 1905. Eight years which transformed Klimt and the Vienna art scene.
An institution before being a style label
The Viennese Secession arises from a concrete problem: who decides what the public can see in Vienna, how the works are selected and what place is given to foreign artists? In 1897, Gustav Klimt and his allies were not only looking for a new appearance. They created an association, an exhibition program, a magazine and soon their own building.
The word "secession" refers to voluntary separation. The artists left the Vienna Visual Artists' Cooperative, based at the Künstlerhaus, because they considered its policy too conservative, insufficiently international and too dependent on ancient commercial forms. They want to present the art of their time without submission to a single doctrine.
This is why the works on display are not all the same. Symbolist painting, architecture, poster, typography, furniture and sculpture coexist. Unity comes less from a uniform decorative vocabulary than from a method: freely organizing space, confronting Vienna with Europe and considering the exhibition itself as a creation.
From the breakup to the start
The chronology shows a remarkable acceleration: in a few months, the group acquired a name, a magazine, an international policy and a building. Success then makes visible the differences that the initial enthusiasm had contained.
Foundation and rupture
The association was formed on April 3. Klimt is elected first president. After the conflict in May, several members officially left the Künstlerhaus.
Exhibit and publish
First exhibition in spring, launch of Ver Sacrum, then second exhibition in November in the new Olbrich pavilion.
Klimt at the center of the controversies
The Faculties' Paintings sparked a controversy that went beyond the Secession and made Klimt's artistic freedom inseparable from public debate.
The Beethoven Exhibition
Twenty-one artists coordinate architecture, painting and sculpture around Beethoven. Klimt paints a monumental frieze for three walls.
Great Klimt retrospective
The eighteenth exhibition offers Klimt an overall presentation. Ver Sacrum, however, ceased publication that same year.
The internal split
Tensions around Carl Moll, the Miethke Gallery and the direction of the association led to the withdrawal of the Klimt group.
Break up, then show immediately
The foundation is not reduced to a gesture of refusal. Artists must prove that another exhibition policy is possible. They are organized around Klimt, first president, Carl Moll, vice-president, and appoint Rudolf von Alt honorary president. Their ambition combines local autonomy and international openness.
The poster designed by Klimt for the first exhibition summarizes the conflict in the form of a myth. Theseus fights the Minotaur while Athena observes the scene. The hero can be read as the new artistic generation; the monster, like the old order. This image does not simply illustrate an event: it creates a story of liberation.
A poster itself censored
The first version shows Theseus' naked body. For public display, Klimt must hide certain parts with typographical elements. The episode is revealing: even before the opening, the freedom program meets the moral and administrative norms of the city.
Sacrum worm, the printed laboratory
The association's periodical appeared from January 1898. Texts, ornaments, illustrations and characters were thought of together. The magazine extends the exhibition on paper and allows members to work on the unity between content, image and layout.
A pavilion that already presents an idea
The Secession building is not a traditional museum. Olbrich designs an adaptable exhibition pavilion, with a large room lit from above. The partitions and routes can be recomposed according to each project. The architecture therefore directly serves the artistic policy of the group.
Outside, the white volumes, relatively bare surfaces and the famous dome of golden leaves make up an instantly recognizable image. The Viennese quickly gave it nicknames, including that of "golden cabbage". This contrast between light geometry and organic ornament announces the balance sought by Viennese modernity.
Each era has its own art, art has its own freedom.
The motto inscribed on the facade does not promise freedom without institutions. She affirms that a modern institution must let artists respond to their present. The pavilion thus becomes at the same time a working tool, an urban emblem and a visible argument against the immobility criticized by the Künstlerhaus.
See the movement beyond the decor
Two historical photographs place the break in a human trajectory: the generation trained at the School of Applied Arts, then Klimt who became an independent authority after his departure.
Around 1880, Gustav Klimt and his brother Ernst were at the forefront of Ferdinand Laufberger's class. Their training already combines painting, decor and architectural commission, three areas that the Secession would bring together differently.
Source Wikimedia Commons →
Two years after his departure, Klimt became the leading figure of the Miethke Gallery. His artistic authority no longer depends on the presidency of an association, but on a network of collectors, sponsors and exhibitions.
Source Wikimedia Commons →How Klimt's language changes
The Secession accompanies the transition from a still naturalistic portrait to a more frontal, symbolic and ornamental painting. Three works make it possible to follow this mutation without reducing it to a mechanical progression towards gold.
1897 -1898 · PORTRAITSonja KnipsBelvedere, ViennaThe model, the red armchair and the unstable space announce a new way of constructing the portrait. Presented at the second Secession exhibition in 1898, the work combines social observation and daring framing.
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1898 · EMBLEMPallas AthenaWien Museum, ViennaAthena wears a small naked Truth figure. The armor, metal frame and frontality transform the goddess into the combative guardian of the new association.
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1899 · PROGRAMNuda VeritasTheatermuseum, ViennaThe vertical figure holds a mirror towards the viewer. The painting contrasts artistic truth with the need to please all and becomes one of the programmatic images of the secessionist Klimt.
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Beethoven: the exhibition as a total work
The fourteenth exhibition is organized as a collective tribute to Beethoven. Under the direction of Josef Hoffmann, twenty-one artists work around the monumental statue of the composer created by Max Klinger. Architecture, sculpture, mural painting, typography and journey are not juxtaposed: they are coordinated.
Klimt receives the left side corridor, which the visitor crosses before seeing the central statue. His Beethoven Frieze deploys on three walls a quest for happiness inspired by Richard Wagner's interpretation of the Ninth Symphony. The floating figures, the knight, Typhée, the Gorgons, Poetry and the final couple compose a narration without illusion of traditional depth.
Secession records indicate nearly 60,000 visitors. Public success does not erase the critical scandal: several figures are considered deformed, obscene or pathological. For Klimt, the experience is nevertheless decisive. The surface, the line and the ornament take on an autonomy which announces the golden period.
Suffering humanity calls a knight to fight for it. Floating geniuses lead the gaze.
Typhaeus, Gorgons, Disease, Madness and Grief are eating away at the central space.
Poetry and choir lead to the embracing couple, a visual echo of Schiller's Ode to Joy.
A retrospective dedicated to Klimt
The year following the Beethoven exhibition, the Secession dedicated its eighteenth exhibition to Gustav Klimt. The presentation brings together an important body of work and confirms that the first president became the central - and most controversial - figure of the movement.
This concentration produces a paradox. The Secession was founded to replace an academic authority with a pluralistic space; she now finds herself strongly identified with Klimt's personality. The latter's success attracts collectors and critics, but it also accentuates internal questions: what place for sales, for applied arts, for individual exhibitions and for other members?
The same year, Ver Sacrum ceased publication. The group retained its building and its program, but the common editorial tool which had given a graphic form to its ideas disappeared. The founding momentum gradually enters a phase of redefinition.
061905
The vote that makes the breakup visible
Why is Klimt leaving the Secession?
The departure of 1905 was not a simple star whim. Old differences oppose members over the purpose of the association. Some favor the exhibition of independent works and fear too close proximity to commercial interests. Klimt's group is more supportive of collaboration with applied arts, architecture and new sales structures.
Carl Moll concentrates the conflict. His role with the HO Miethke Gallery and the plan to use this gallery as an exhibition and marketing relay were contested. On June 14, 1905, a vote unfavorable to Moll's position transformed the disagreement into a split. Moll withdrew, then Klimt and several relatives in turn left the association.
It would be misleading to mechanically pit "pure artists" against "merchants". The Secession itself organized exhibitions and sold works. The debate focuses more on the control of the system, the place of applied arts, the influence of a private gallery and the cultural direction of the group.
Continue the institution
The remaining members maintain the association, the pavilion and an independent program. The building does not become a fixed monument dedicated to Klimt.
Create elsewhere
Klimt, Moll, Moser, Hoffmann, Roller and their allies continued their collaborations outside the association, notably in the Kunstschau of 1908 and 1909.
Eight actors to recognize
The Secession owes its strength to the complementarity of practices. Identifying a few names helps us understand why debates about exhibition, architecture, print and applied arts were inseparable.
Public figure of the group, author of Pallas Athena, Nuda Veritas and the Beethoven Frieze.
Vice-president of the foundation, leader of the collector networks and central actor in the crisis of 1905.
Contributes to Ver Sacrum and links the Secession to applied arts, then to the Wiener Werkstätte.
Leads the collective layout of the Beethoven exhibition and defends the unity of the arts.
Designs the Secession Pavilion as a modular space and an urban manifesto.
Publisher of Ver Sacrum and author of the very vertical poster for the Beethoven exhibition.
The great watercolorist, aged eighty-five in 1897, brought his prestige to the new association.
Accompanies and formulates secessionist modernity; it is closely associated with the famous motto of the pavilion.
The rupture does not stop Viennese modernity
Departure separates structures, not artistic problems. Exhibiting, developing, publishing, selling and collaborating remain the big questions of the following decade.
Kunstschau Wien
The Klimt group is participating in a vast temporary exhibition designed as an architectural ensemble. Klimt notably presents Le Baiser. Applied arts and planning occupy an assumed place.
International Kunstschau
New protest extends international opening. The younger generation, including Oskar Kokoschka, appears in a landscape that the Secession helped make possible.
Permanent return of Friesland
After public acquisition and restoration, the Beethoven Frieze is installed in a specially designed room in the basement of the pavilion for which it was created.
An institution still active
The Secession continues a contemporary art program decided by its members. The story of 1897 remains alive in an independent exhibition model, not a simple reconstruction of Jugendstil.
A historic site that is not a Klimt Museum
The pavilion hosts temporary contemporary exhibitions and preserves the Beethoven Frieze. You should therefore not expect to see a vast permanent collection of Klimt paintings there.
- Start by observing the motto and dome from the Friedrichstrasse.
- Inside, look at how the plan and light serve the current facilities.
- Go down to the Beethoven Frieze and follow the story from left to right.
- For Le Baiser and the large Klimt collection, complete with the Belvedere.
- Check times, room closures and prices before the visit.
Extending history through works
These links correspond to active collections in the catalog: the Beethoven Frieze, works linked to the pavilion and a larger ensemble devoted to the Secession and Art Nouveau.
Compare walls, figures, hostile powers and final torque.
Explore →VIENNA 1900Secession and Art NouveauPainting, decor and graphic language around Viennese modernity.
Explore →ARCHITECTURE · EXHIBITIONSecession BuildingWorks and images associated with the pavilion designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich.
Explore →ALL WORKGustav KlimtPortraits, landscapes, allegories, drawings and decorative compositions.
Explore →AFTER SECESSIONThe golden periodSee how surface and ornamental experiments continued after 1902.
Explore →MUSEUM · VIENNAAustrian Belvedere GalleryKlimt's masterpieces and Austrian modernity around 1900.
Explore →Check dates, works and break
The article favors the Secession itself, the Klimt Database, the Belvedere, the Wien Museum and the Leopold Museum. Wikimedia pages are used only for free files and their licenses.
Founded on April 3, 1897, break with the Künstlerhaus, Ver Sacrum and withdrawal of the Klimt group in 1905.
Consult the source →INSTITUTIONSecession · History of the associationRole of Klimt, founding members, Olbrich building and current mission of the association.
Consult the source →ARCHITECTURESecession · The buildingDesign of the pavilion, site, exhibition spaces and permanent presence of the Beethoven Frieze.
Consult the source →EXHIBITION 1902Secession · Beethoven FriezeDates, twenty-one artists, scenography, number of visitors, reception and material history of the frieze.
Consult the source →BREAK 1905Klimt Database · Miethke GalleryRole of Carl Moll, market relations and disagreements which aggravate internal conflicts.
Consult the source →VOTEKlimt Database · Carl MollThe vote of June 14, 1905, the "Moll affair" and the withdrawal of the group around Moll and Klimt.
Consult the source →POSTER 1898Leopold Museum · Ver SacrumNotice of Klimt's uncensored poster for the first Secession exhibition.
Consult the source →WORK 1898Wien Museum · Pallas AthenaCollection notice, date, technique and place of the work in Viennese modernity.
Consult the source →SYNTHESISBelvedere · Who Was Gustav Klimt?Transformation of Klimt's language, founding of the Secession and overcoming academic painting.
Consult the source →Twelve questions about Klimt and the Secession
What is the Viennese Secession?
An artists' association founded in Vienna in 1897 to renew the exhibition policy, open the Austrian scene to international art and defend creative freedom. It's not just a decorative style.
Did Gustav Klimt found the Secession?
Yes. He belongs to the founding group, becomes the first president of the association and quickly embodies its public visibility. The Secession, however, remains a collective enterprise.
Why do artists leave the Künstlerhaus?
They contest an exhibition policy considered conservative, not very international and too subject to commercial habits. The rupture became formalized in the spring of 1897.
What does the building motto mean?
The formula "Every era has its own art, art has its freedom" summarizes the group's ambition: to produce for its time and protect the autonomy of creation.
Why is the Secession Pavilion important?
Designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich and opened in 1898, it offers artists a modular space designed for modern exhibitions. Its dome of golden leaves becomes the visual emblem of the movement.
What is the role of Sacrum Worm?
Published from 1898 to 1903, the periodical distributed texts, drawings, typographies and layouts. It functions as a graphic laboratory as much as as the organ of the association.
What is the 1902 Beethoven Exhibition?
The fourteenth Secession exhibition, designed as a collective work around the statue of Beethoven by Max Klinger. Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze on three walls.
Why did Klimt leave the Secession in 1905?
Old disagreements over the direction of exhibitions, the place of applied arts and relations with the market crystallized around Carl Moll and the Miethke Gallery. After a vote on June 14, the Klimt group withdrew.
Who left with Klimt in 1905?
The group includes Carl Moll, Kolo Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Otto Wagner, Alfred Roller and Josef Maria Auchentaller. The lists vary depending on the way members are counted and successive resignations.
Does the Secession disappear after Klimt leaves?
No. The association and its building continue their activities. The Secession still exists today as an independent exhibition institution dedicated to contemporary art.
What did the Klimt group do after 1905?
It organizes its own events, in particular the Kunstschau of 1908 then the Internationale Kunstschau of 1909, with a central place given to architecture, design and the unity of the arts.
Where to see the Beethoven Friesland today?
In the Secession building in Vienna, where it has been permanently exposed in the basement since 1986. Visiting conditions must be checked on the official website before traveling.
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