VIENNA SECESSION

(1897-1939)

JASEEM REHMAN
SHABEER FARIS KS
B.ARCH IIIrd YEAR
RVS SOA

VIENNA SECESSION
It was an Austrian Artist movement which was formed in 1897 by
a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association
of Austrian Artists, housed in Vienna.
Artists Otto Wagner and his gifted students, Josef Hoffman and
Josef Olbrich, Gustavo Klimt, Koloman Moser were the artists
involved in this movement.
These artists aspired to the renaissance of the arts and crafts and
to bring more abstract and pares forms of the designs of buildings
and furniture, glass and metal work, following the concept of total
work of art and to do so they tried to bring together Symbolists,
Naturalists, Modernists and Stylists.

This movement included painters, sculptures and architects.

The movement represented a protest of the younger
generation against the traditional art of their forebears, a
separation from the past towards future.
The first president of the secession was
Gustavo Klimt and Rudolf Von Alt was made
honorary president.
They created their own exhibition space
called the secession building to persue
their goal, by the architect Maria Olbrich.

Vienna secession promoted their design aesthetic

with exhibition posters and its own official magazine
named Ver Sacrum, which means sacred spring.
The journal included poetry illustrations, graphic art,
decorative borders, object design and cutting-edge
conceptions for layout.

Art in Secession Building

Cover page of first edition VER SACRUM

designed by A. Roller, 1898

Gustavo Klimts work

HISTORY
1898- In the month of November, the first exhibition
was held.
The Vienna Secession building presented works of
the most important artists of the times as:
Gustav Klimt
Kolomon Moser
Josef Maria Olbrich
Max Klinger
Walter Crane
Eugene Grasset
Signac
Charles Robert AshbeeCharles Rennie
Mackintosh

Degas
Arnold Bocklin
Giovanni Segantini
Auguste Rodin
Edvard Munch
van Gogh
Toulouse-Lautrec
Vuillard
Bonnard
Redon
Gauguin
Otto Wagner

And also a good proportion of Belgian

Artists as:
oFernand Khnopff,
oConstantin Meunier,
o Felicien Rops,
oTheo van Rysselberghe,
oGeorge Minne.
1902- Gustav Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze
as part of installation of Max Klinger's sculpture
Beethoven; installation designed by Josef
Hoffmann.
The Beethoven Frieze was left on view another
year, then dismantled and sold.

1903- On 19th may another association, the Wiener

Werksttte ( The "Vienna Workshop") was registered in
Vienna .

The founders, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, both

members of the Vienna Secession, wanted to provide an
outlet for graduates from the Kunstgewerbeschule.
This fine arts society was started with the goal of reforming
applied arts and crafts.
1905- The ongoing conflict between the naturalists, who
had stuck to many of the Kunstlerhaus beliefs from the
beginning of the Secession Movement, and the stylists
finally proved irreconcilable.
1905- Gustav Klimt and other artists left the Vienna
Secession due to differences of opinion over artistic
concepts.

STYLES OF SESSIONISTS
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 could 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 else, 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
individualistic spirit of turn-of-the-century Vienna.
The Secessionist style was exhibited in a magazine
that the group produced, called Ver Sacrum, which
featured highly decorative works representative of the
period.

Jugendstil owls - Detail of the

facade of the Viennese Secession
Building. These designs for
buildings facade decoration are
attributed to Koloman Moser.

The Beethovenfries, created

by Gustav Klimt, is housed in the
lower floor.

ARCHITECTURE
Along with painters and sculptors, there were several prominent
architects who became associated with The Vienna Secession.
During this time, 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.
Secessionist architects often decorated the surface of their buildings
with linear ornamentation in a form commonly called whiplash or eel
style.

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).
This building became an icon of the movement. The
secession building displayed art from several other influential
artists such as Max Klinger, Eugene Grasset, Charles Rennie
Mackintosh, and Arnold Bocklin.
Otto Wagner's Majolika Haus in Vienna in 1898 is a
significant example of the Austrian use of line. Other
significant works of Otto Wagner include The Karlsplatz
Stadtbahn Station in Vienna in 1900, and The Austrian Postal
Savings Bank or sterreichische Postsparkasse in Vienna
(19041906).

Secession building-Exhibition Hall

Secession building-Exhibition Hall

Sketch diagram of Secession building by

Maria Olbrich.

Wagner's way of modifying Art

Nouveau decoration in a classical
manner did not find favour with some
of his pupils who broke away to form
the Secessionists. One was Josef
Hoffmann who left to form the Wiener
Werksttte, an Austrian equivalent of
the Arts and Crafts movement. A good
example of his work is the Stoclet
Palace in Brussels (1905).

The Secession coin

COMMEMORATION
The Secession movement was selected as the theme for a
commemorative coin: the 100 euro Secession commemorative
coin minted on 10 November 2004.
On the obverse side there is a view of the Secession exhibition
hall in Vienna. The reverse side features a small portion of
the Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt.
The extract from the painting features three figures: a knight in
armor representing Armed Strength, one woman in the
background symbolizing Ambition and holding up a wreath of
victory, and a second woman representing Sympathy with
lowered head and clasped hands.

JOSEF HOFFMANN
Born: December 15, 1870
Brtnice, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian
Empire
Died: May 7, 1956 (aged 85)
Vienna, Austria
Buildings: Sanatorium Purkersdorf
Stoclet Palace
Ast Residence
Skywa-Primavesi Residence
Projects: Vienna Secession
Wiener Werksttte

Joseph Hoffmann was born in Brtnice. Moravia, now part of the Czech
Republic.
In 1887 he entered the Higher State Crafts School in Brno and worked
with the local military planning authority in Wrzburg.

Thereafter he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Karl

Freiherr von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner, graduating with a Prix de
Rome in 1895.
In 1987 along with artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, and Joseph
Maria Olbrich, founded the Vienna Secession movement.

In 1899, he became an instructor at the

University of Applied Arts Vienna.
He was a gifted industrial designer, and
designed for a wide range of projects in
architecture, furniture, utensils, clothing, bookbindings, posters, textiles, and wallpaper.

Textile Design

 Hoffmann was one of the most prominent Viennese proponents of

the Gesamtkunstwerk, or " all-embracing artwork ." This was a thesis in
the aesthetic theory of Richard Wagner, expounded in his Das
Kunstwerk der Zukunft (The Art-work of the Future, 1849).
Wagner suggesting a dramatic work in which drama, music, poetry,
song, and paintings should be united into a new and complete art-form.
Adhereing to this theory, Hoffmann was also greatly influenced by John
Ruskin, William Morris, Charles Robert Ashbee, and Otto Wagner, all of
whom were dedicated to elevating the status of craft to that of fine art,
and Hoffmann incorporated their teachings into the curriculum at the
Kunstgewerbeschule (School for Arts and Crafts), where he was
appointed professor at the age of twenty-nine.

Vienna Workshops Poster,

1905

Hoffmann founded the Wiener Werksttte in 1903 with fellow

Vienna Secession member Koloman Moser.
It was a studio involved in jeweler making, the production of fabrics
for dressmaking, the construction of furniture, ceramics and other
art forms which could be incorporated into daily life.
The Wiener Werksttte aimed at pursuing elegance, a reduced
vocabulary of form, functionality and appropriateness, which stood
in contrast to the imitation style of Historicism.
The result were : simplified shapes, geometric patterns, and
minimal decoration. The majority of designs was supplied by famous
artists, including Carl Otto Czeschka, Josef Hoffmann, Bertold Lffler,
Dagobert Peche, and Koloman Moser.

In early 20th century, Hoffmann developed his geometrically

refined signature style, characterized by its elegance, charm, and
sophisticated simplicity that he incorporated in designs for silver,
furniture, carpets, linens, and lamps as well as architectural forms.
His designs were well received both in Europe and the United
States, and his successes lasted well into the 1950s. However, in of
spite honours and praises bestowed on him on the occasions of
his 80th and 85th birthdays, time and taste had changed, and he
was virtually forgotten by the time of his death at age 85. The
process of rediscovery and reappraisal began in 1956 with a small
book by Giulia Veronesi and during the 1970s gained momentum
with a number of exhibitions and smaller publications. In the
1980s several monographs were published and major exhibitions
held.

ARCHITECTURE WORKS
1900-1911 Designer for Hohe Warte Artists Colony
1900-1901 Double House for Koloman Moser and Carl Moll
1904 Sanatorium Purkersdorf
19051906 House for the writer
Richard Beer-Hofmann in Vienna
19051911 Palais Stoclet in
Brussels, Belgium

Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

1907 Interior decoration of Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

19091911 Ast Residence in Vienna

19131915 Skywa-Primavesi Residence in Vienna

19131914 Country house for Otto Primavesi (in Kouty nad
Desnou (Winkelsdorf), Moravia (destroyed by fire in 1922
1919-1924 House for Sigmund Berl in Bruntal, Moravia
1920-1921 Villa for Fritz Grohmann in Vrbno pod Pradedem,
Moravia
19231925 Urban Klosehof Housing Complex

1924-1925 Villa Knips in Vienna, made for Sonja

Knips
19301932 Four row houses for the Viennese
Werkbunds settlement
1934 Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale

SELECTED FURNITURE WORKS

1904 Purkersdorf Armchair

1910 Club Armchair

1905 Sitzmaschine Armchair

1911 Haus Koller Chair

1905 Kunstschau Armchair

1905-1910 Palais Stoclet Armchair
1907 Fledermaus Chair
1908 Siebenkugelstuhl Chair
1908 Armloffel Chair
1910 Kubus Armchair

Sitzmaschine Armchair in black color

Palais Stoclet