THE BEETHOVEN FRIEZE

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



Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze: Gorgons


While many artist colleagues hailed Klimt's Beethoven Frieze with enthusiastic praise, the general public and the contemporary press frequently reacted to the presentation of the frieze with indignation or even outrage. Klimt's work, which enjoys such widespread popularity today, was regarded by many of his contemporaries as incomprehensible, scandalous and "obscene".



Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze: Sickness, Madness, Death


In the case of the Beethoven Frieze, it was primarily the front wall with the "Hostile Forces" that elicited outrage: the depictions of Sickness, Madness, Death and the angular expressive figure of Gnawing Grief were decried as "images of madness and fixed ideas", "pathological scenes" and "shameless caricatures of the noble human figure", the lewd eroticism of the Gorgons and the depictions of Lasciviousness and Wantonness was denounced by many as "painted pornography".


 
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