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“To each time its art, to art its freedom”, were the words removed in 1907 from the building of the Viennese Secession following internal disagreements of the group, which then became the maxim of the Kunstschau in 1908. The group had emerged two years earlier, in 1906, supported by journalist Erdgeist, but only in the summer of 1908 the first official inauguration took place in coincidence with the celebrations in Vienna for the sixtieth anniversary of emperor Francis Joseph I’s reign.
Actually, the artists, some of whom harshly criticized in the past for their artistic choices, were not invited to take part in the imperial parade, however, they were offered a building site, initially meant for the Konserthaus in the urban centre, for the placement of a new exhibition venue. Within a few months, Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Otto Prutscher, Koloman Moser and many others worked on building a wooden structure, organizing and furnishing 54 exhibition rooms, indoor courtyards, gardens, a café, a summer area and even a small cemetery, as a sort of fully furnished two-floor country house. A total of 6,500 square metres of surface were covered with paintings, sculptures, works of art and decorative products creating a synthesis, a confluence of different artistic expressions, a triumph of creativity. Walls, showcases and floors were covered with the works by 176 artists such as Carl Moll, Franz Kupka, Max Oppenheimer and some young students from the Vienna school of arts and crafts, among whom Oskar Kokoschka.
Until 18th January 2009 the Belvedere, wonderful Baroque residence of prince Eugene of Savoy, will revive that famous exhibition on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, proposing to the public a truly unique space-time experience.
A large number of original documents will be displayed: models, documentary photos, video-clips and diagrams will illustrate in detail that exceptional event and will give an idea of its importance. A 4-metre architectonic model will indicate the location of the Kunstschau in the urban context. Furthermore, a rigorous and complete reconstruction of some rooms of the revolutionary exhibition will accompany the visitors on a time journey, directly to the atmospheres of the Kunstschau: room “50” with works by the leading members of the Viennese Secession, room “10” which will re-propose posters and reproductions hung on the walls just like then, and room “22”, designed by Kolo Koser and intended to host important works by Gustav Klimt, show-piece of yesterday’s exhibition like today’s. It was there that the artist, master of the Jugendstil and protagonist of the Secession of Vienna, presented some of his most famous masterpieces such as come Fritza Riedler (1906), Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), The Three Ages of Women (1905), Danae (1907/08) and the very famous Kiss from 1908, which with the exhibition celebrates its 100 years and which was actually bought on that occasion to be part of the collection which is now kept at the Belvedere.
The current event at the Belvedere will, therefore, be a chance to get to know better a particular moment of the history of art and the artists that were part of it, many of whom have fallen into oblivion, such as the sculptor Franz Metzner, whose works at that time had been given 2 rooms by the Kunstschau. This is certainly not the case of the already mentioned Klimt, whose masterpieces, dressed in gold and richly decorated like precious jewels, even nowadays have great success fascinating a wide range of public and attracting the art market: one of his masterpieces displayed at the Kunstschau 1908, the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), set his sales record in June 2006, bought in Los Angeles for 135 million dollars by cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder.
www.belvedere.at/
(translated by Giorgina Arcuri)
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