In cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Wien Museum is showing an exhibition about the Secession movements in Munich, Vienna and Berlin at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2023 it was shown at the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, from May 23, 2024 it will be shown at the newly opened Wien Museum on Karlsplatz.
The term Secession is associated with an important chapter in art history at the dawn of modernism, which in Vienna is directly linked to Gustav Klimt, in Munich to Franz von Stuck and in Berlin to Max Liebermann. The establishment of Secessions at the end of the 19th century in several European countries meant a break with the established art scene of the time, brought about by the artists themselves, and was one of the basic conditions for the establishment of artistic modernism.
Max Kurzweil, Lady in Yellow, 1899, oil on canvas, Wien Museum Photo: Birgit and Peter Kainz, Wien Museum
The traditional structures of state subsidies and exhibition systems with juries based on the criteria of local art academies were rejected and the artists strove for freedom. The aim was to create a vibrancy and diversity of artistic forms of expression with an international orientation. The exhibition focuses on the overarching nature of this new idea in Munich, Vienna and Berlin, which meant a complete transformation from an academic system to exhibition formats and venues organized by artists themselves and resulted in a new constellation of artists, collectors, dealers and art critics.
May 23 to October 13, 2024
www.wienmuseum.at
Dora Hitz, Cherry Harvest, before 1905, oil on canvas © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Reinhard Saczevski
