The Vienna Secession
“To every age its art, and to every art its freedom”
The Vienna Secession was a group founded by Austrian artists in 1897. initially it has 50 members including such designers and artists as: Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner, Gustav Klimt, and Wilhelm Bernatzik
Culture
The idea of the group was to go against the extremely conservative culture in the arts and design prevalent in Austria at the time and do something new. their plan was to exchange ideas with countries and areas outside Austria and no longer be rooted in historical art. they have coined the Austrian Art Nouveau and would go on to help pave the way to expressionism. This movement helped break Austria out of the artistic rut they were in and brought not only just the secessionists but many artistic movements from around the world to the public eye.
Architecture
pictured here is the Secession building by Joseph Maia Olbrich
It was made as the headquarters for the group and shows off their ideas on architecture perfectly. It is considered the first permanent exhibition space for contemporary art. The building would (and still does) show off a wide array of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and graphic design pieces that show off the secession ideas. Inspired by neoclassicism, The secession architecture had simplicity in architecture and focused on the shape. But as they did not look to history for their style they went for a more art nouveau style of extreme levels of detail and strong use of organic ornamental detail. The massive floral dome on top of the Secession building shows off this embellishment perfectly as well as the whiplash designs dotting the facade.
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