Nice Klimt! (Secession)

Member Name: Morgenhund

Product:	Secession
Date:	18/12/01 (75 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well documented, English commentary

Disadvantages: not much else other than the frieze to see

I had friends visiting from Britain over the weekend and they wanted to see some of Vienna's cultural past, but with time being quite short, the object was to do things that weren't time consuming. Knowing that they'd want to see something by Klimt, but not have time for the Klimtoganza that is Belvedere, home to "The Kiss" amongst other works, I took them to the Secession, by Karlsplatz, to see the Beethoven Frieze. Many tourists will get their first sight of the Secession on the national side of the new Euro coins, where it appears on the Austrian 50 eurocent piece.

The building is exceptionally eye-catching, in immaculate white (unless you visited in 1998 - the centenary of its construction - when it was red!) with the look of a Greek temple, the most outstanding feature being a delicate golden gilded globe. It was paid for by Karl Wittengenstein, father of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and designed by Josef Olbrich, with a decadent style similar to that of Otto Wagner, and not unreminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley.

It is the permanent home of Klimt's Beethoven frieze, which is what most people come to see, although there are two other exhibitions there, with a main gallery area and a small room upstairs. These exhibitions often get overlooked, but then given their "Turner Prize" Art it is not surprising. Upstairs there was a near epileptic fit inducing looping film of a fairground, which was all a blaze of flurrying lights, and also a film of someone in the revolving restaurant of the TV tower in Vienna, with a very slow panorama being shown. Not very inspiring! The main exhibition area had about twenty odd short films, including a looped film supposed to be showing someone drowning in a bath-tub... These artists are funny people, and have strange ideas of what constitutes art.

The highlight is the Beethoven frieze, which is housed in the cellar of the building in a room. The Frieze, which was su
pposed to be destroyed after the Secession's exhibition of 1902 which was in homage of Beethoven, looks unfinished, indeed Klimt is purported to have still been on a scaffold during the exhibition, clad in his famous smock, painting away. The frieze has been extensively restored in the last twenty five years or so following its purchase by the government. It had been impounded by the Nazis following the Austrian Anschluss, and was stored for a while in very poor conditions. The frieze is a depiction of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with portrayals of Sickness, Madness and Death as well as the other extremes of Debauchery, Voluptuousness and Wantonness.

There are a collection of Klimt's sketches - very rude it must be said (in the unpolished sense although also in the indecent sense too!) There is also information about the secessionist publication "ver sacrum" - the sacred spring, and the commentaries about the frieze and the Secessionists are in English and German.

In the lobby, and in a room to the right there are a selection of secession related souvenirs, from scarves, through to postcards. I found the Secession sufficiently interesting to buy the CD Rom about it, which was ATS220 (£10) and which has a lot about the frieze on it, although that is the only part that is in English. Admission is ATS 60 (about £2.75) or ATS 40 (£1.80) which is quite a bit considering how much more you can see at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM).

For more information about the secession there is a website at www.secession.at

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