The Vienna Secession (Modernism)

Looking to break away from the stoic artistic style of his formative years and influenced by the developing movements of European Impressionism, Symbolism and Modernism, Gustav Klimt persuaded a group of artists to found the Vienna Secession in 1887.

The Vienna Secession aimed to create a “complete work of art,” in which the major disciplines of painting, sculpture, and architecture mix with the decorative arts, achieving an aesthetic harmony. To spread their principles throughout Europe, the Secession members created the journal Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring), and to house their exhibitions, Olbrich designed the Secessionists’ hall.

It was during this time that Klimt began to cement his own artistic style. Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, he began to depict femme fatales: beautiful, young women with long hair, distinguished by an intense eroticism – a theme closely tied to Freud’s theory of Eros and Thanatos. Sensuality, sexuality, death, and the cycle of life became key elements in Klimt’s work from this moment on.