the building itself is GORGEOUS.
the inscription above the door reads: "to every age its art, to art its freedom," and the small decal to the side says "ver sacrum," which means "sacred spring," and is the motto of the secessionist school and the name of the arts journal they published. it was designed by the secession school, used to have details all along the sides and back done by kolo moser (you know, i never really knew anything about moser, but now i find that i'm a HUGE fan. almost everything i see that he's done, i love. i bought a print of a riveting self-portrait that he'd done when i was at the belvedere). however, the back and most the of the insides of the pavilion was destroyed by bombs in the war, and it was rebuilt without most of the decoration on the back. :(
anyway, the beethoven frieze is housed in the basement of the building, and it absolutely took my breath away. there was no way i could have understood its scope or statement just by looking at pictures in books (which i have done, many times). but now i get it...it surrounds you, and all of a sudden all of its symbolism makes perfect sense. it was painted for a secessionist exhibit in that building, a beethoven retrospective formed around a statue of beethoven by max klinger. the frieze depicts klimt's interpretation of wagner's analysis of beethoven 9....mankind's struggle through their own human weakness, the "hostile forces" of the world, and then finally their redemption and completion through art. in the third panel of the frieze, the forces of "human hope" finally encounter Poetry, and stop their seeking in a wash of gold, disolving into empty space. in the original exhibition, right after this picture there was an opening in the freize where visitors could see the statue of beethoven. then klimt's paintings resumed, with the most joyous explosion of gold and decadent patterns, a couple in the most sublime embrace....i swear i literally heard the final chorus of the last movement echo through my mind. it gave me goosebumps.
i stayed in that room for a long time, making notes, and then decided to see the other parts of the building. it's kind of cool that it's still used as an exhibition space for up-and-coming austrian artists, truly continuing what that building was designed to do, instead of turning it into yet another klimt retrospective, complete with "the kiss" scarves. (at the risk of sounding like an art snob, i HATE "the kiss". i mean, it's not emotionally grabbing to me at all in the way that the beethoven freize was, or in the way that his "judith und holofernes" was. and yet, it is vaulted as his greatest work...i just don't believe it. (and i'm not a TOTAL snob: my favorite artist has to be the most popularly successful one of all, van gogh. although seriously, kolo moser is giving him a run for his money)).
but i found the new exhibits to be dull and un-artistic....boring, not saying much...bad art. it was done tactlessly, crudely. i appreciate the thoughts, and the efforts, and whatever, but it really just wasn't good. comparing it to the modern exhibit currently going on at the belvedere, which i found stimulating both emotionally and intellectually, i felt the artists at the secession were rather second-rate.
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