Vienna Secession

Shauna Coy IDT 3020 – Johnson WSU Spring 2013

Vienna Secession

The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists , Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, and Max Kurzweil.

Architecture - rectangular and cubic forms that dominate the composition, monumental mass, sparing use or ornament, and an emphasis on function, light, and air. Architects often strive to transform Vienna’s existing classical architecture with Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt, simplicity, functionality, and modern materials Palais Stoclet Dining Room, 1905-11

These creations are highly individual and innovative. Two of the secessionist's most famous projects are its own exhibition space, the Secessionist Building and the Palais Stoclet, a sophisticated private house for millionaire banker and art collector Adolphe Stoclet in , Belgium.

Projects include offices, railway stations, museums, shop galleries, churches, large apartment complexes and tenant houses. Private houses for affluent patrons are important examples of the style.

Motifs - Squares and checker patterns in black and white or in solid and void rendition like dots, repetitive geometric designs, medallions, circles, carved floral ornament, sunflowers, Exterior of the philodendrons, roses, and laurel trees or leaves Palais Stoclet

Otto Koloman Wagner (13 July 1841 – 11 April 1918) was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.

In 1894, when he became Professor of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, he was well advanced on his path toward a more radical opposition to the prevailing currents of historicist architecture. In 1896 he published a textbook entitled Modern Architecture in which he expressed his ideas about the role of the architect; it was based on the text of his 1894 inaugural lecture to the Academy. His style incorporated the use of new materials and new forms to reflect the fact that society itself was changing. In his textbook, he stated that "new human tasks and views called for a change or reconstitution of existing forms". In pursuit of this ideal, he designed and built structures that reflected their intended function, such as the austere Neustiftgasse apartment block in Vienna.

‘The means that are available and the purpose of the building under construction will always give rise to a vacillation between the extremities of pure utility and artistic execution.’ -Modern architecture 1895

The Austrian Postal Savings Bank building Joseph Maria Olbrich

In 1893, he started working for Otto Wagner, the Austrian architect, and probably did the detailed construction for most of Wagner's Wiener Stadtbahn (Metropolitan Railway) buildings

In 1897, Olbrich designed their exhibition building, the famous Secession Hall, which became the movement's landmark Josef Hoffman

studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner, graduating with a Prix de Rome in 1895. In Wagner's office, he met Joseph Maria Olbrich, and together they founded the Vienna Secession in 1897 along with artists Gustav Klimt, and Koloman Moser

In 1906, Hoffmann built his first great work on the outskirts of Vienna, the Sanatorium Purkersdorf Wiener Type Public company Industry art, interior Werkstätte decoration Founded 1903–1932 Headquarters Vienna, Austria Key people Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Dagobert Peche Products jewellery, ceramic, furniture, leather, fashion, metalworks

Hoffman left the Secession in 1905 along with other stylist artists due to conflicts with realist naturalists over differences in artistic vision and disagreement over the premise of Gesamtkunstwerk. With the banker Fritz Wärndorfer and the artist Koloman Moser he established the Wiener Werkstätte, which was to last until 1932. He designed many products for the Wiener Werkstätte of which designer chairs, most notably "Sitzmaschine" Chair, a lamp, and sets of glasses have reached the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and a tea service has reached the Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Gesamtkunstwerk (translated as total work of art, ideal work of art, universal artwork, synthesis of the arts, comprehensive artwork, all-embracing art form or total artwork) is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so.

The term is a German word which has come to be accepted in English as a term in aesthetics. Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Hoffmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Maria_Olbrich http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wagner http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult--hoffmann-josef- 1831-1904-austr-sitzmaschine-model-no-670- 1764026.htm http://www.szecesszio.com/2009/12/13/palais-stoclet- the-total-work-of-art/