inside of the vienna secession building interior

The first issue was published in January 1889, even before the Secession’s first exhibition. Ver Sacrum lasted until 1903, and for a while could be found across Europe. From the beginning, there was a broad aesthetic spectrum, as the artists did not follow a certain common style, and a euphoric sense of a new world of art.

The publication announced the intention of using exhibitions as a field for experiments in the aesthetic fusion of art and literature, graphic art and text. Immediately after leaving the Künstlerhaus, the dissidents prepared the journalistic ground for their future exhibitions by founding the art magazine Ver Sacrum. This final break with the Künstlerhaus manifested itself in a change in the Vereinigung’s statutes as well, forbidding its members to participate in the public exhibitions of other houses.ĭespite only existing for eight years from 1897 to 1905, the new style of exhibiting fine arts and arts and crafts, and the new exhibition hall, led to the group being known as the ‘Vienna Secession’. Among their first members: the architects Josef Hoffmann and Josef Maria Olbrich, the painters Josef Engelhart, Carl Moll, Koloman Moser and Alfred Roller who had studied architecture as well as painting. But when fierce differences arose between established and young artists concerning the delegations to exhibitions in Dresden and Munich, the artists around Gustav Klimt finally declared their secession on 24 May. Since 1861 the Genossenschaft (abbreviated to ‘Künstlerhaus’) had been the official representation with its own exhibition house at the Karlsplatz in Vienna. The new association should exist as a kind of club within the ‘Genossenschaft bildender Künstler Wiens’. Gustav Klimt, 35 years old, was elected as president, 85-year-old artist Rudolf von Alt, who had always been an advocate of the young, was elected Honorary President. On 3 April the constituting assembly of the new association was held.

This was the beginning of the Vienna Secession. On 27 March 1897 art critic Ludwig Hevesi wrote enthusiastically: ‘The art city of Vienna, this gigantic small town, will now finally become a Big-Vienna, a true New-Vienna.’ He had heard that a group of young artists was to found the Association of Visual Artists (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs).

Inside of the vienna secession building interior