THE BEETHOVEN FRIEZE

THE BEETHOVEN EXHIBITION 1902     SYNOPSIS     CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM     THE HISTORY OF THE BEETHOVEN FRIEZE     PUBLICATIONS



XIVth exhibition 1902, left side-aisle with the "Beethoven Frieze" by Gustav Klimt. Foto: Secession


Gustav Klimt created the famous Beethoven Frieze for the XIVth exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Austria Secession, which took place from 15 April to 27 June 1902. This exhibition, conceived as an homage to the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, most sublimely embodied the secessionist idea of the gesamtkunstwerk.



Poster design by Alfred Roller, catalogue on the XIVth exhibition 1902. Foto: Secession


A total of 21 artists collaborated on the exhibition under the direction of Josef Hoffmann. The exhibition centered around Max Klinger's Beethoven statue placed in the main hall. In addition to Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, wall paintings and decorations by Alfred Roller, Adolf Böhm, Ferdinand Andri and numerous other artists were presented. The declared aim of the exhibition was to reunite the separate arts - architecture, painting, sculpture and music - under a common theme: the "work of art" was to emerge from the interplay of the design of the rooms, the wall paintings and sculpture.



XIVth exhibition 1902, main hall with "Beethoven statue" by Max Klinger. Foto: Secession


Klimt's monumental wall cycle was located in the left-hand aisle, which visitors to the exhibition entered first. An opening in the wall offered a view of Max Klinger's Beethoven statue, indicating the interplay of architecture, painting (Klimt's Beethoven Frieze) and sculpture (Klinger's Beethoven) as soon as the visitor entered.



XIVth exhibition 1902, main hall. Foto: Secession


The XIVth exhibition drew nearly 60,000 visitors, thus becoming one of the Secession's greatest public successes. It also proved fundamentally important to Klimt's further development, as well as that of numerous other participating artists: the ideal of the interplay and aesthetic integration of all artistic disciplines and the collaboration tested in the Beethoven exhibition was successfully continued by the Wiener Werkstätte, among others.

Today the Beethoven Frieze is considered one of Klimt's key works and one of the high points of Viennese Art Nouveau.


 
For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at