In a city full of buildings that fall under adjectives like magnificent, significant, groundbreaking, notable, and more, this one, built in 1897, is arguably the most easily recognizable; it’s like no other in Vienna or anywhere else.
It’s no accident that it stands out; it was meant to be an affront to the artistic and architectural orthodoxy of its time; its name reflects its role as home to a community of artists and architects who were seceding. Its architect, Joseph Olbrich, meant it as both a home and a manifesto.
Roughly speaking, it belongs to ‘Jugendstil,’ the local variety of Art Nouveau, but it incorporates forms borrowed from ancient civilizations, and even hints of the classical forms it scorned.
The Secession—the artists and others who resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, which supported only traditional styles—is a Who’s Who of the era: Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Olbrich, and soon after Otto Wagner. The building was their exhibit hall and home to their magazine, Ver Sacrum, or Sacred Spring.
Much has changed in the world, and in the world of art, since then, but the Secession building is still a beacon, and is still an artist-controlled exhibit space for modern and contemporary art, including Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze in the lower exhibit hall.
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