The Vienna Secession

Jul 3, 2025

Guest

Diane Silverthorne

In this engaging discussion, Mark Berry, a Professor of Music and Intellectual History, complements Leslie Topp, an expert in architectural history, and art historian Diane Silverthorne. They delve into the revolutionary spirit of the Vienna Secession, emphasizing how Klimt's radical artistry created a new cultural identity. Topics include the influence of coffeehouses on artistic networks, the fusion of fine arts and architecture, and Freud's psychological impact on artists. They also explore the innovative designs of the Secession Building and the crucial role of Jewish patrons in this cultural revolution.

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INSIGHT

Secession As A Breakaway Cultural Project

The Vienna Secession formed in 1897 when Klimt and younger artists seceded from conservative institutions to create their own exhibition platform.
They aimed to unite fine and applied arts to make a distinctly Austrian modern art that rejuvenated everyday life.

INSIGHT

Modern Publicity And A Time-Based Motto

The Secession used modern publicity: a journal, designed graphics, and a bold slogan to define themselves to the public.
Their motto framed art as timely and liberated, insisting art must fit its era rather than classical continuities.

INSIGHT

A Building Designed For New Exhibitions

The Secession Building combined simplified classical frontage with a glass-and-steel light-filled exhibition hall.
Its flexible white interior pioneered exhibition design and immersive spatial arrangements.

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In 1897, Gustav Klimt led a group of radical artists to break free from the cultural establishment of Vienna and found a movement that became known as the Vienna Secession.

In the vibrant atmosphere of coffee houses, Freudian psychoanalysis and the music of Wagner and Mahler, the Secession sought to bring together fine art and music with applied arts such as architecture and design.

The movement was characterized by Klimt’s stylised paintings, richly decorated with gold leaf, and the art nouveau buildings that began to appear in the city, most notably the Secession Building, which housed influential exhibitions of avant-garde art and was a prototype of the modern art gallery. The Secessionists themselves were pioneers in their philosophy and way of life, aiming to immerse audiences in unified artistic experiences that brought together visual arts, design, and architecture.

 With:

Mark Berry, Professor of Music and Intellectual History at Royal Holloway, University of London

Leslie Topp, Professor Emerita in History of Architecture at Birkbeck, University of London

And

Diane Silverthorne, art historian and 'Vienna 1900' scholar

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Reading list:

Mark Berry, Arnold Schoenberg: Critical Lives (Reaktion Books, 2018)

Gemma Blackshaw, Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 (National Gallery Company, 2013)

Elizabeth Clegg, Art, Design and Architecture in Central Europe, 1890-1920 (Yale University Press, 2006)

Richard Cockett, Vienna: How the City of Ideas Created the Modern World (Yale University Press, 2023)

Stephen Downes, Gustav Mahler (Reaktion Books, 2025)

Peter Gay, Freud, Jews, and Other Germans: Masters and Victims in Modernist Culture (Oxford University Press, 1979)

Tag Gronberg, Vienna: City of Modernity, 1890-1914 (Peter Lang, 2007)

Allan S. Janik and Hans Veigl, Wittgenstein in Vienna: A Biographical Excursion Through the City and its History (Springer/Wien, 1998)

Jill Lloyd and Christian Witt-Dörring (eds.), Vienna 1900: Style and Identity (Hirmer Verlag, 2011)

William J. McGrath, Dionysian Art and Populist Politics in Austria (Yale University Press, 1974)

Tobias Natter and Christoph Grunenberg (eds.), Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life (Tate, 2008)

Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Vintage, 1979)

Elana Shapira, Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture and Design in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna (Brandeis University Press, 2016)

Diane V Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds and Megan Brandow-Faller, Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902-1911 (Letterform Archive, 2023)

Edward Timms, Karl Kraus: Apocalyptic Satirist: Culture & Catastrophe in Habsburg Vienna (Yale University Press, 1989)

Leslie Topp, Architecture and Truth in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Peter Vergo, Art in Vienna, 1898-1918: Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele and Their Contemporaries (4th ed., Phaidon, 2015)

Hans-Peter Wipplinger (ed.), Vienna 1900: Birth of Modernism (Walther & Franz König, 2019)

Hans-Peter Wipplinger (ed.), Masterpieces from the Leopold Museum (Walther & Franz König)

Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday: An Autobiography (University of Nebraska Press, 1964)

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