Spanning the Divide of Centuries: Vienna from the Last Habsburgs to the Austrian Republic

March 20–July 31, 2008
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

Vienna, capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emerged at the end of the nineteenth century as one of the major centers of the modern movement. New ideas about the individual and society found expression in the work of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, composers Arnold Schoenberg and Gustav Mahler, architects Otto Wagner and Josef Hoffmann, writers Robert Musil and Hugo von Hofmannstahl, and artists Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, among many other notables.

Members of the Vienna Secession epitomized this new energy. Rejecting the stolid traditions of the renowned Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, they founded their own movement, rallying around the motto, “To the age its art. To the art its freedom.” Their goal was to create a new aesthetic for the modern age. Through periodicals, portfolio plates, postcards, books, calendars, and advertisements brought together by The Wolfsonian Library, Spanning the Divide of Centuries explored how these Viennese artists continued their innovations despite the onset of the First World War and formation of a new Austrian Republic, enriched by the bitter experiences of combat and social upheaval.