VIENNA SECESSION

(1897-1939) JASEEM REHMANSHABEER FARIS KSB.ARCH IIIrd YEARRVS 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 Klimt’s 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 KlimtKolomon MoserJosef Maria OlbrichMax KlingerWalter CraneEugene GrassetSignacCharles 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.

•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.

•1903- On 19th may another association, the Wiener Werkstätte ( 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.

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 building’s 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 Österreichische Postsparkasse in Vienna (1904–1906).

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 Werkstätte, 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, 1870Brtnice, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire•Died: May 7, 1956 (aged 85)Vienna, Austria•Buildings: Sanatorium PurkersdorfStoclet PalaceAst ResidenceSkywa-Primavesi Residence•Projects: Vienna SecessionWiener Werkstätte

•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 Würzburg.

• 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.

Textile Design

•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, book-bindings, posters, textiles, and wallpaper.

• 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 Werkstätte 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 Werkstätte 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 Löffler, 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

•1905–1906 House for the writer Richard Beer-Hofmann in Vienna

•1905–1911 Palais Stoclet in Brussels, Belgium

Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

•1907 Interior decoration of Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

•1909–1911 Ast Residence in Vienna

•1913–1915 Skywa-Primavesi Residence in Vienna

•1913–1914 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

•1923–1925 Urban Klosehof Housing Complex

•1924-1925 Villa Knips in Vienna, made for Sonja Knips

•1930–1932 Four row houses for the Viennese Werkbund’s settlement

•1934 Austrian pavilion at the Venice Biennale

SELECTED FURNITURE WORKS•1904 Purkersdorf Armchair

•1905 Sitzmaschine Armchair

•1905 Kunstschau Armchair

•1905-1910 Palais Stoclet Armchair

•1907 Fledermaus Chair

•1908 Siebenkugelstuhl Chair

•1908 Armloffel Chair

•1910 Kubus Armchair

•1910 Club Armchair

•1911 Haus Koller Chair

Sitzmaschine Armchair in black color

Palais Stoclet