Europe

[Visited: March 2002]

Apart from being a city of classical buildings, opera and café's, Vienna is also a city of museums. One particular museum is Secession, which can safely be called an avant la garde museum. Its motto, since its establisment in the late 19th century, has been "To each time its Art, to Art its Freedom". Its aim is to show modern art from both within and outside the country.
in 1897, a group of modern artists founded the Vienna Secession., Their goal was to find ways in which to reflect modern life, in this, they opposed the conservative artistic trends prevalent in Vienna at the turn of the century. Some pieces still on exhibition in the building were originally solely intended for the 1902 exhibition (like Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze) but were subsequently saved for posteriority.
Part of the Secession building houses a fixed collection of modern art, among which the Klimt frieze. Otherwise, there is a hall with changing exhibitions, in which works of Manfred Erjautz was displayed when I visited. The first thing to notice is the enormous neon lamps in the shapes of his initials ME on the ceiling of the hall. At the sides, there are a few paintings, and another work is a simple, large opening in the wall, affording a view of the garden. But be careful, although it looks like you can step right into the garden, there is actually a huge glass window!

Around the World in 80 Clicks

Personal travel impressions both in words and images from Secession Museum (Austria). Clicking on the pictures enlarges them and enables you to send the picture as a free e-card or download it for personal use, for instance, on your weblog. Or click on the map above to visit more places close to Secession Museum.
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