He began to see the concept as old-fashioned, no longer the ideal, and decided to abandon the Secession. The Secession, the harmony of the arts, had proven an utopia. However, these feminine portraits in gold belong to one of the most important representations of women in his work. There is no doubt that Klimt was conscious of the dangers an overwhelming decoration could mean for his paintings. The latter is the culmination of this phase. Klimt´s “golden age” began with the Portrait of Fritza Riedler, painted in 1906, and ended with Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, painted in 1907. The enveloping robe subtracts force to the painting’s sexual representation, transforming the taboo of the kiss into a version that not only escaped potential critics, but also conquers the public’s enthusiasm and the puritanical bourgeoisie’s acceptance. The woman seems to bear it with resignation. This time, the man clearly dominates and takes the initiative in the kiss. It has been compared to the Mona Lisa, as both exert a similar fascination. Klimt also worked on the motif of the embraced couple later on with his famous painting The Kiss, the most important work of his ‘golden phase’ and the emblem of the Secession. The movement enabled the construction of the building for the Secession, designed by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich. Klimt was a regular collaborator in the Secession magazine Ver Sacrum. This rebellion was so powerful its immediate success was translated into a utopic enterprise: the transformation of society through art.
The Viennese Secession played a central role in the development and diffusion of Modernism in painting and in the field of applied arts as a stylistic countercurrent against the official academic school and bourgeois conservatism of the time.
“Our Secession is not a confrontation of young artists against old ones, but a struggle to revalue artists against hawkers that make believe they are artists and that have a commercial interest in preventing art from flourishing.” This declaration by Hermann Bahr, intellectual godfather of the Secessionists, served as an emblem for the foundation of the Viennese Secession in 1897, which was presided by Klimt. In this painting new elements such as the use of gold and the transformation of anatomy into ornament will determine Klimt’s later work. The Secession adopted Pallas Athene as their protectress. Klimt and his friends saw in Beethoven the incarnation of a genius and in his work the glorification of the love and self-sacrifice capable of saving Humankind. The whole exposition became an homage to Ludwig van Beethoven, a glorified musician in those years. The exposition was celebrated in 1902 in honor of Max Klinger, whose sculpture of Beethoven was the focus of the event. This idea motivated the Secession to make its XIV exposition a united work of art. Klimt’s utopic generation believed that only art could save people, thus the period’s tendency for uniting art. This term, invented by Richard Wagner, expressed the notion of a synthetic form of art that is larger than the sum of its parts. Their versatility and interest in the unifying effects of style were patent in all forms of expression of the Secession.Įach of the Secession’s exhibitions was a “a total work of art”. Many of the movement’s members were architects and designers and many of them were talented in painting, illustration, typography, and furniture and textiles design. The difference with Constructivism and artists such as Le Corbusier, was that they offered their theories to serve the people, while Hoffman and Klimt could only work with patrons.Ī very important part of the Secession’s program was the emphasis on architecture and its insistence on the equality of all other arts. This teamwork was a milestone in the history of art and became the creed of the 1920s Bauhaus movement as well as of Russian Constructivism. Klimt designed a three-part mosaic of marble adorned with gold enamel and precious stones. The industrialist Adolphe Stoclet commissioned Klimt and Hoffman a “palace” in Brussels. The Stoclet Frieze was the last wall Klimt decorated. This frieze tries to answer his questions through the depiction of humankind’s salvation by the unique power of art and love. Klimt had been questioning the meaning of life. The frieze was planned to remain only for the length of the exposition and was thus painted directly on the wall with light materials that could easily be removed. The exhibition’s opening ceremony included the fourth part of the Ninth Symphony, directed by Gustav Mahler, director of the Opera of Vienna.