The Vienna Secession broke from the academy to create a new modern art. From Klimt's Beethoven Frieze to the Secession Building, learn how it reshaped Vienna's art world.
On April 3, 1897, 19 artists gathered in a coffee house in Vienna and signed a document that dissolved their membership in the city's official art establishment. They called themselves the Vereinigung Bildender Kunstler Osterreichs (Union of Austrian Artists), but they became known as the Vienna Secession. The name came from secessio plebis, the plebeian revolt against patrician power in the Roman Republic. Their leader was a young Gustav Klimt, then 35 years old. They were seceding from the Kunstlerhaus, the conservative artists' association that controlled which art was exhibited in Vienna and which was not. The Kunstlerhaus was firmly embedded in the imperial establishment, and it favored academic painting: historical scenes, portraits, and landscapes in a traditional style. The Secessionists wanted something else entirely. Their motto, inscribed in gold on the facade of the exhibition building they would soon construct, was: "To every age its art, to every art its freedom."
The Vienna Secession was a group of progressive Austrian artists, architects, and designers who broke away from the established art institutions of Vienna in 1897 to create a new, modern art. The movement lasted in its original form until 1905, when Klimt and his closest associates left the group, but its impact on Viennese and European art was permanent. The Secession was part of the broader Art Nouveau movement that swept Europe at the turn of the century, but it was distinct in its intellectual seriousness, its integration of art and design, and its ambition to create a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art that encompassed all aspects of visual life.
This entry covers what the Vienna Secession was, how it emerged from the stifling conservatism of fin-de-siecle Vienna, which artists defined it, and how a movement that lasted only eight years in its original form transformed the cultural life of an entire city.
The Vienna Secession was a revolt of artists against the institutions that controlled art in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. The Kunstlerhaus, the official artists' association, controlled not only which paintings were exhibited in Vienna but which could be exhibited abroad. It favored academic, historical painting and rejected modern, experimental work. The Secessionists wanted to create a space where new art could be shown, where foreign artists could be exhibited, and where art could be integrated with design and craft rather than isolated as fine art.
The movement was characterized by several principles. First, the rejection of historical styles and academic tradition. The Secessionists did not want to imitate the art of the past; they wanted to create an art that reflected their own time. Second, the integration of art and craft. The Secessionists viewed all forms of art and craft as having equal status, and they aspired to the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total work of art that encompassed painting, sculpture, architecture, design, and even everyday objects. Third, internationalism. The Secession invited foreign artists to exhibit in Vienna, including Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Auguste Rodin, and Aubrey Beardsley. Fourth, the creation of a dedicated exhibition space. The Secession Building, designed by Josef Maria Olbrich and completed in 1898, was a physical manifestation of the movement's principles: a simple white cube with a dome of gilded laurel leaves, symbolizing purity, victory, and dignity.
The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest presented Nuda Veritas: Gustav Klimt and the Origins of the Vienna Secession 1895-1905, an exhibition that provided a comprehensive picture of the development of modern art in Vienna. The exhibition covered the period from 1897, when the Secession was founded, to 1905, when the Klimt Group left the union. Over the course of a few years, starting in March 1898, the members mounted 23 exhibitions, documented through contemporaneous photographs and written records. The "golden era" was characterized by intense activity, documented by the six volumes of Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring), the Secession's publication, which ran until 1903. Read more at Museum of Fine Arts Budapest.
Vienna at the end of the 19th century was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a multi-ethnic state of 50 million people ruled by Emperor Franz Joseph I. The city was a center of music, literature, science, and philosophy, but its visual arts were conservative and institutionally controlled. The Academy of Fine Arts and the Kunstlerhaus maintained a strict hierarchy of genres, with historical painting at the top and everything else below. Artists who wanted to experiment with modern styles had no venue to show their work.
The immediate cause of the Secession was a dispute over exhibition policies. A group of younger artists, including Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and Joseph Maria Olbrich, had been trying to modernize the Kunstlerhaus from within. When their efforts were blocked, they resigned and formed their own organization. The founding meeting took place on April 3, 1897, in a Vienna coffee house. Klimt was elected president.
The movement was part of a broader wave of secession movements that swept European art in the late 19th century. The Munich Secession was founded in 1892, the Berlin Secession in 1898. All of these movements shared the same basic structure: younger artists breaking away from conservative official institutions to create modern art. The Vienna Secession was distinctive in its integration of art and design, its intellectual ambition, and the quality of its publications, particularly Ver Sacrum, which was both a magazine and a work of art in itself.
The name Ver Sacrum referred to the sacred spring of an ancient pagan ritual of renewal, in which young people were sent out to found new communities. The magazine was launched in 1898 and ceased publication in December 1903. It was executed at a high artistic standard and remains one of the most important art publications of the period. As the art critic Ludwig Hevesi promised when the Secession Building opened, it would "break the chains and raise the dead from the graves" and herald the dawn of a "Great Vienna." Read more at History Today.
Klimt was the spiritual leader and first president of the Vienna Secession. His Nuda Veritas (1899, Osterreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna) shows a naked woman holding a mirror toward the viewer, with a quote from Friedrich Schiller above: "If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please only a few. Pleasing a bad majority is a bad thing." The painting gave its name to the Budapest exhibition on the origins of the Secession. Klimt's Beethoven Frieze (1902, Secession Building, Vienna) is a 34-meter-long frescoed frieze created for the Secession's 14th exhibition, which was dedicated to Max Klinger's sculpture of Beethoven. The frieze was both a homage to Beethoven's Ode to Joy and an allegory of humanity's redemption through the arts. Klimt's The Kiss (1907-1908, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna) is the most famous work of the Secession and one of the most recognized paintings in the world: two figures locked in an embrace, their bodies covered in gold leaf and decorative patterns, standing on a flower-strewn meadow. Klimt was denied a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts four times, and was only made an honorary member in 1917, a year before his death.
Moser was a designer, graphic artist, and painter who played a central role in the Secession. He designed posters, exhibition catalogs, and the layout of Ver Sacrum. His poster for the Secession's first exhibition in 1898 shows a bare, stylized tree with the Secession building emerging from its roots. Moser later co-founded the Wiener Werkstatte (Vienna Workshops) with Josef Hoffmann in 1903, extending the Secession's principles into applied arts and design. Moser's graphic design work pushed the boundaries of the field in directions that would influence the Bauhaus and modern graphic design.
Hoffmann was an architect and designer who was a founding member of the Secession. He designed the galleries for the Secession's exhibitions, including the 1900 eighth exhibition, which was devoted entirely to the applied arts and featured the Glasgow Four: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Margaret Macdonald, and Herbert and Frances McNair. Hoffmann co-founded the Wiener Werkstatte with Moser in 1903, creating a production center for furniture, textiles, metalwork, and ceramics that embodied the Secession's principle of integrating art and craft. His Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905-1911), a Gesamtkunstwerk in which every element from architecture to silverware was designed by Hoffmann and his collaborators, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Olbrich was the architect who designed the Secession Building, completed in 1898. The building was based on simple cubes and spheres, with a minimal white facade contrasted by a dome decorated in gilded laurel leaves. The inscription above the entrance read: "To every age its art, to every art its freedom." The building was a turning point for art in Vienna, opening the way for artists to explore new forms. Olbrich later moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where he designed the Artists' Colony for Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse.
Schiele was not a founding member of the Secession, but he emerged from its context. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he was discovered by Klimt, who invited him to exhibit at the 1909 Kunstschau (art show), which Klimt organized after leaving the Secession in 1905. Schiele's work, with its distorted figures, raw sexuality, and intense self-portraits, pushed the Secession's principles of freedom and modernity to extremes that Klimt himself did not reach. Schiele died of Spanish flu in 1918, at age 28, three days before his pregnant wife Edith died of the same disease.
The Vienna Secession's first phase runs from 1897 to 1902, the period of greatest unity and productivity. The Secession Building was completed in 1898. Ver Sacrum was launched the same year. The group mounted 23 exhibitions between 1898 and 1905, introducing Viennese audiences to works by foreign artists including the French Impressionists, Van Gogh, Munch, and Whistler, as well as presenting the work of Secession members. The Beethoven exhibition of 1902, which included Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, was the culmination of this period's ambition to create a total work of art.
The second phase runs from 1902 to 1905, during which internal divisions grew. The Secession was divided between the Stilisten (Stylists), a design-oriented faction led by Klimt, and the Naturalists, who favored more traditional realist painting. The conflict came to a head in 1905, when Klimt and his closest associates, including Hoffmann and Moser, left the Secession. The split was not acrimonious in the way that some art movement breakups are. It was a recognition that the Secession had served its purpose and that the next phase of modern art in Vienna would take different forms.
After 1905, Klimt organized two Kunstschau exhibitions in 1908 and 1909, which launched the next generation of Viennese artists, including Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. The Wiener Werkstatte continued until 1932. The Secession Building continued to host exhibitions, and the organization itself continues to exist today, making it one of the oldest surviving independent art institutions in the world.
The Vienna Secession's influence extends far beyond its brief eight-year lifespan in its original form. The movement's integration of art and design influenced the founding of the Wiener Werkstatte, which in turn influenced the Bauhaus and the broader modernist design movement. The Secession's graphic design work, particularly Moser's posters and Ver Sacrum layouts, pushed the field in directions that would be developed further by the Bauhaus and by modernist graphic designers. The Secession Building itself, with its white cube gallery space and minimalist facade, was a prototype for the modern art gallery that would become standard in the 20th century. The movement's motto, "To every age its art, to every art its freedom," remains one of the most powerful statements of artistic independence ever written.
The Vienna Secession is part of the broader Art Nouveau movement, which shared its emphasis on organic forms, decorative arts, and the integration of art and design. It is related to the Arts and Crafts Movement through its commitment to craft and its rejection of industrial mass production, though the Secession was more open to modern materials and techniques. The Secession's integration of art and design directly influenced the Bauhaus, which took the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal into the 20th century. For more on the broader context, read our post on Art Nouveau and the total work of art.
The Secession Building at Friedrichstrasse 12 in Vienna still stands and still hosts contemporary art exhibitions. Klimt's Beethoven Frieze is permanently installed in the basement of the building. The Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna holds The Kiss and the largest collection of Klimt's paintings. The Leopold Museum in Vienna holds the world's largest collection of works by Egon Schiele. The Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna holds extensive collections of Wiener Werkstatte design. The Budapest Museum of Fine Arts' exhibition Nuda Veritas provided a comprehensive look at the Secession's early years.
If you want to trace the Vienna Secession from its origins to its legacy, start at the Secession Building for the Beethoven Frieze, then visit the Belvedere for The Kiss and Klimt's other paintings, and end at the Leopold Museum for Schiele. You will see how a group of 19 artists in a coffee house produced a movement that transformed the visual culture of an entire city and influenced the development of modern art and design. For more on the broader context, read our entries on Art Nouveau and Bauhaus, or explore our post on Art Nouveau and the total work of art.
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