VIENNA

SECESSION
(1897- JASEEM REHMAN
SHABEER FARIS
1939) KS
B.ARCH IIIrd
YEAR
 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
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,
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,
theWiener 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
1905-
of The ongoing
reforming appliedconflict
arts andbetween
crafts. 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.
Jugendstilowls - Detail of
the facade of the Viennese
Secession Building. These
designs for buildings
facade decoration are
attributed toKoloman
Moser.
TheBeethovenfries,
created byGustav 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 wereJosef

Hoffmann,Joseph Maria Olbrich, andOtto
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 ofKarlsplatz. 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 asMax
Klinger,Eugene Grasset,Charles Rennie
Mackintosh, andArnold Bocklin.

Otto Wagner's Majolika Haus inViennain

1898 is a significant example of the Austrian use
of line. Other significant works of Otto Wagner
include TheKarlsplatz Stadtbahn Stationin
Vienna in 1900, and The Austrian Postal
Savings Bank orsterreichische
Postsparkassein Vienna (19041906).
Secession building-Exhibition Hall
 Secession building-Exhibition Hall

Sketch diagram of Secession

building by Maria Olbrich.
Wagner's way of modifyingArt
Nouveaudecoration 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
theWiener Werksttte, an
Austrian equivalent of theArts
and Crafts movement. A good
example of his work is
theStoclet
PalaceinBrussels(1905).

The Secession coin

COMMEMORATION

The Secession movement was selected as the

theme for a commemorative coin: the 100
euroSecession commemorative coinminted on 10
November 2004.

On the obverse side there is a view of theSecession

exhibition hallinVienna. The reverse side features a
small portion of theBeethoven FriezebyGustav
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(aged85)
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, book-bindings,
posters, textiles, and wallpaper.

Textile Design
 Hoffmann was one of the most prominent Viennese
proponents of theGesamtkunstwerk, 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

1904Sanatorium Purkersdorf

19051906 House for the writer

Richard Beer-Hofmann in Vienna

19051911Palais Stocletin
Brussels, Belgium

Kabarett Fledermaus in Vienna

1907 Interior decoration ofKabarett Fledermausin
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
1924-1925 Villa Knips in Vienna, made
forSonja 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 co
Palais Stoclet