Secession
The Secession Building—Secessionsgebäude—was completed in 1898 by Joseph Maria Olbrich as a deliberate architectural “manifesto” for the Vienna Secession, a breakaway group of artists who left the long-established fine-art establishment. Its program is as specific as its politics: the building holds Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, a flagship work for the Secession style, identified here as a branch of Art Nouveau (or Jugendstil in German usage). Money and message are fused in the building’s origin. It was financed by Karl Wittgenstein, the father of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and above the entrance the movement’s motto is carved in German: “Der Zeit ihre Kunst. Der Kunst ihre Freiheit”—“To every age its art, to every art its freedom.” Even the symbolism is architectural: beneath that motto stands a sculptural set of three gorgons representing painting, sculpture, and architecture. …
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