Vienna's Artistic Revolt: From Romanticism to Secession

1. An experimental station for the collapse of mankindKarl Krauss Saturday, 04 January 2020

2. What was here before? • A city of genius – Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert – Vienna despises talent whilst alive and honours it after death.

3. 19th century • Romanticism. Beethoven leads the way. • Schubert follows. • Authority unsettled by the rise in private performance and respect for the individual.

4. Problem: • An autocratic imperial power must face the rise in popular opinion and culture. • A decade or so after the French revolution – authority feels threatened.

5. Nature of Power • Emperor rules Austro-Hungarian Empire and sits at the top of a plutocratic power pyramid. • Taste is generally conservative and non-innovative. • All things new or “foreign” are discouraged. • City lapses into comfortable mediocrity…

6. The Waltz… • The music of social gatherings. • Intimacy is allowed in strictly regulated conditions. • The soundtrack is that of the Strauss family, seen today as embodying Viennese culture as the 19th century develops.

7. Architecture agrees:

10. 1897 • Vienna is bloated, living in the past and decaying. • Young artists are inspired by what they see and by the rise of Freudian analysis to challenge the authority of the state-run art schools and galleries. • They found a new movement in Café Sperl (Hitler’s favourite coffee house, by the way).

11. Secession • The Secession, or • “break-away” is • born. • KLIMT is among • the more • prominent artists • involved.

12. 1898 : 1st Exhibition • “We desire not art enslaved to foreigners, but at the same time without fear or hatred of the foreign”. • Meaning? • “To every age its art. To art its freedom.” (secesion motto)

13. JEWS • In this deeply anti-Semitic city, it was possible for one authority figure to declare: “Science is what one Jew copies from another”. • The new arts movement (JUGENDSTIL) numbered many Jews amongst its members. Hostility was evident within “nice” society.

14. INEVITABLE BREAK • The hostility between Alt-Wien and the modernists forced a break. • Freud, Klimt, Mahler are all treated poorly. Klimt as a pornographer and Mahler, although working as director of the Staatsoper, hounded from office by the wealthy and powerful.

15. Sex … • Women still wore fashions dictated by men: wasp waists, large busts, collar to toe coverings. Klimt and Freud began to remove the outer layers and show the sexuality that lurked beneath.

17. … and Death. • Fatalism and a fascination with death are evident in much of the poetry and music of the time. • Kidertotenlieder – Mahler sets songs that would presage the deaths of his own children.

18. A revolt against Mediocrity • A building was designed by Otto Wagner to hold the Secession exhibitions:

19. A new beginning • At odds with the Baroque buildings around it, this was an immediate statement of intent. • !4th exhibition was the most famous. Devoted to Beethoven it featured the Beethoven Frieze of Klimt…

21. 1905 • The movement begins to fragment and the artists begin to go their separate ways. • Music takes over…

22. New Music • A new language for a new time. • Fibonacci based Western music is altered to achieve a new language. • 12 note strings… • I’ll explain briefly.

23. 2nd Viennese School • Schoenberg, Webern, Berg. • Hated by society, helped by Mahler. • Art survives and is enriched by the debate… • Is this true of all areas of knowledge? Why?

24. Key figures or The Bedroom of Alma Mahler… • Busy girl, Alma: • Zemlinksy (composer) • Klimt • Gropius (architect and artist) • Kokoschka • Werfel • All in addition to Gustav Mahler, probably the greatest musician of his day.

25. KLIMT • Leading figure of Secession • Sensual • Visionary • Forced to withdraw certain paintings which caused too great an offence: University pictures

26. Mahler • Director Staatoper • Renowned composer • Fatalistic outlook on life. • Jewish • Took music to the edge of the new ideas. • Supported Schoenberg and others. • Died 1911 after “exile” in New York.

27. KOKOSCHKA • Had affair with Alma after Mahler’s death (unlike Gropius who didn’t wait). “Consciousness is the source of all things and ideas, it is a sea with visions as its only horizons. Consciousness is a tomb for all things, where they cease to be, the hereafter in which they perish.” • ?

28. Die Windsbraut

29. Alban Berg • Composer supported by Alma. • Wrote in 12 note style. • Violin concerto dedicated to dead child of Alma and Gropius. • Works embody the fatalistic death obsession of Viennese art at this time:

30. Berg’s Operas • Wozzeck • Misfit poverty stricken soldier abused by authority figures • Wife unfaithful –seeking glamour • Murders her • Commits suicide • Lulu • Prostitute has a variety of clients • Expounds theory of life and death • Meets Jack the Ripper. • …

31. Vienna • The city of Schmaltz and whipped cream. • Strauss waltzes and carriage rides around the Ring for the wealthy. • In reality a hotbed of innovation and the centre of artistic change for the twentieth century. • Bigoted, deceitful, charming, beautiful, imaginative, inspirational…