SCHNITZLER AND THE ERA OF DECADENCE

Vienna was the capital of twentieth century. The numerous innovative cultural and intellectual movements that took place in this city radically changed Western culture and thought. 1900 Vienna shaped the post-modern word.

As in many other fields, Vienna was a place for literary innovation. The most important literary group of this time was the Young Vienna movement. With Hermann Bahr in the front, this group of writers turned their back to the current style of Naturalism. In 1890, Bahr's work Zur Kritik der Moderne (On Criticism of Modernity) established the word modernism as a literary term. Painters, musicians, architects, poets, journalists and other intellectuals met in Café Griensteidl, Café Central or Café Museum.

Vienna’s finest writers, painters and psychologists were preoccupied with the problem of the nature of the individual in a disintegrating society due to the death of traditional liberalism. This preoccupation led to Austria’s new vision of man. The traditional liberal culture’s man was replaced by the more complex psychological man.

Realism and Naturalism, with Emile Zola in the front, were the leading literary movements in France and other European countries. Nineteenth century Austria, unlike other countries, remained unaffected by the social realist movement. Yet Austrian literature found other ways to face the problem of cultural values in a transforming society.

By the same time of Freud’s Interpretation of dreams publication, Artur Schnitzler was introducing the interior monologue to Austrian literature. So instead of the conventional omniscient narrator voice, he gives the reader direct access to the characters’ minds allowing them to have their own thoughts about the characters’ personalities and actions. In his novella Lieutenant Gustl (1900), Schnitzler let the inner thoughts of Gustl, an officer of the Austro Hungarian army, lead the reader throughout the story instead of making comments. The author becomes invisible.

Schnitzler was also the amoral voice of his generation, talking about sex openly on his work. A loss of meaning in life was being experimented by the young Viennese generation before World War I. They were desperately seeking fulfilment in love and pleasure to find themselves even more disappointed at the end. Schnitzler, like Freud, understood the extensive power of sex. He had numerous affaires and sexual experiences during his life, which is manifested in his characters who are sexualy aware. Yet in his writing we can perceive a “double code of morality” when we talk about his men and women characters; while men are unfaithful to their mistress, women’s faithfulness remains unquestioned. On the other hand, Schnitzler seemed to understand the psychology of women. He realized that the libido is present in everyone, regardless of social class. He really explored the character of “das süsse Mädl”, a term to describe the sweet, young and uncomplicated woman who felt free to explore her sexuality. As an anecdote, Freud considered Schnitzler his Doppelgänger, as he confessed to him in a letter in 1922.

Schnitzler also introduced politics to Austrian literature. In his novel The Road of the Open  talks about the emerging Anti-Semitism in Vienna and the also new Zionist movement. This novel is a portrait of Jewish life in the turn of the century Vienna and their pursuit for freedom.

As a curiosity, Schnitzler was fascinated by hypnotism in medical practice; especially for the treatment of aphonia (I might try it, though…).

Schnitzler was definitely the most revolutionary prose writer during Fin de Siècle Vienna and his work captured a whole era. His interest in the psyche and medicine gave him the elements to become the more representative writer of this extremely singular time in Vienna and give a voice to his generation.

 

REFERENCES USED:

·         Schorske, Carl E. Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. New York: Knopf, 1979. Print.

·         Kandel, Eric R. The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present. New York: Random House, 2012. Ebook.

Gustav Klimt and the Secession: A Timeline in Paintings & Photographs

This is Part ONE! 

The beginning of the Secession and its early achievements:

During the mid-1880s, the only place to study painting in Vienna was the Imperial Academy. Focusing on the study of “academic” and “naturalist” paintings, the artists of this school produced works of almost astonishing realism, lead by giants of the era such as Hans Makart. Works by such “history painters” (examples below) were giant in scale, brilliant in color, and often depicted historical scenes or allegorical themes. However, they adhered to strict guidelines for composition and content.

Makart: "The Five Senses", 1872 - 1879

A young Gustav Klimt was one of Makart’s students at the Academy. Klimt revered his teacher, accepted the historical style completely, and launched his own artistic career by collaborating with Makart on many projects - most notably some major permanent murals for the entryway to the Art Museum and several other significant buildings on the Ringstrasse. Here is an example of Klimt’s early work at the Academy, followed by two examples of such collaboration:

Klimt "Die Fabel", 1883. Very lush, allegorical, and representative of both
classical figure-painting and a dramatic naturalist landscape.

"Athena" - a joint mural by Makart & Klimt, representing Ancient Greece.
In the main stairway of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

On the opposite side of the same wall,
representing the Museum's collection of artifacts from Egypt and the ancient world.

Such work lead to major commissions for Klimt, including patronage by Franz Josef I. He was popular, desirable, and influential in taste, a rising star in Vienna … and slowly getting tired of imitating art that had come before. 

In 1897, Klimt withdrew from the Academy, taking nineteen other students with him. This group had rebelled against the Academy’s devotion to historicism, and wished to set themselves up under a new philosophy, insisting that the dawning twentieth century - and every century - was entitled to its own style. Organized and designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich, they built the “Wiener Secessionsgebäude”, fondly known as the Secession House, that same year. This white, very square and spare building was meant as both a statement of their purpose and a gallery space. Over the door in gold letters, their motto states, Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit — “To the age its art, to art its freedom.”

Klimt was the first president of this new society. In defiance of the classical school they had just abandoned, he and and other subsequent leaders avoided laying down any particular doctrine of what the members’ art should be about - but lead the group more through a sense of adventurousness and innovation. 

The group actually earned success and notoriety very quickly - their work was exhibited by the Paris International Exhibition as early as 1900 … partly due to Klimt’s charm as a popular figure. Their magazine, the Ver Sacrum, was devoted to design, art criticism, philosophical debates, and literary articles from as many famous writers of the day as they could find. One of the most recognizable drawings from this publication is Klimt’s “Nuda Veritas”, or Naked Truth - a bold ink drawing of Truth as a nude woman, holding up a mirror as if asking Viennese society to examine itself and the art. This iconic design became a feature of Secession art, including this painted version that appeared at the entrance of many exhibits.

The ink drawing NV, with quote from Schefer:
"Truth is fire, and to speak the truth means to shine and to burn"

The painted NV, with quote from Schiller:
"If you can't please everybody with your deeds and your art please only few. To please many is bad."
Source ~ http://www.klimt.com/en/gallery/early-works/klimt-nuda-veritas-1899.ihtml

Meanwhile, other Secession artists were physically changing Vienna’s streets. Architect Otto Wagner designed the Karlsplatz train station, which caused a great public outcry … initially, in shock as it was built to look so modern and dramatic, and again in its defense as a cultural landmark a hundred years later when the city considered demolishing it in 1981.

Josef Hoffmann entered the Viennese home. He created bold, geometric interiors and home furnishings, marrying the decorative to the utilitarian through the extravagance of clean lines in wide open spaces:

Koloman Moser worked in graphic designs for textiles, wallpaper, furniture, posters, books and more - his designs permeating the Viennese identity so much that he even designed their postage stamps:

So as the Secession movement grew, its numbers swelled with artists and innovators from all disciplines. Today, this outburst of bold design is known as “Jugendstil”, or Art Nouveau. It spread like wildfire throughout all of Europe as Vienna’s newborn passion for the decorative-but-useful met Paris’s commitment to gallery shows of modern art.

To be continued ... !

Schoenberg and Loos as Divergent Artists in Fin-de-siecle Vienna

Hi all! Here is my piece I've put together. My topic was musical tastes in Vienna and I found that art, architecture and music were so closely linked- so close that it is impossible to investigate the tastes of the musical output without cross-referencing. I found some stunning connections between Schoenberg and Adolf Loos, architect, which led me to write the following piece on their connection as divergent artists during fin-de-siecle Vienna! Hope you enjoy!

- Susannah Thornton

    

Adolf Loos, left, and Arnold Schoenberg

“Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength.” -Adolf Loos

Vienna at the turn of the 20^th century, or fin-de-siecle Vienna, and the surrounding metropolis of the Austro-Hungarian empire was a locale of lush cultural outpourings. When we reflect back on this golden era today- more than a century later- we admire incredible creators: Gustav Mahler, Gustav Klimt, Arnold Schoenberg, Max Kurzwell, Adolf Loos, Alban Berg and countless others. As with so many other periods of remarkable production, much of these artists’ creativity arose from cultural movements which inspired them to innovate past the boundaries of older forms from the Romantic era and transcend the public’s conceptions of art. One of the most prominent musical developments of fin-de-siecle Vienna was the formation of the Second Viennese school and, subsequently, new atonal systems for concert music. Arnold Schoenberg, the pioneer of the twelve tone serial style, was deeply connected to the cultural and philosophical movements of his day. The idea of the Viennese Moderne as posed by the architect Adolf Loos in his monumental essay/manifesto Ornament and Crime (1908) was deeply influential to Schoenberg’s compositional landscape.

Looshaus (Vienna), constructed 1911

Adolf Loos was born in 1870 in the Moravia region of the Austro-Hungarian empire to working class parents. He studied briefly at a technical school in Liberec (now in Czech Republic) and the Dresden University of Technology before relocating to the United States for three years. During his travels to the US he visited large cities such as New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, doing odd jobs as he absorbed the cultural and architecural landscape of the unfamiliar nation. He was married three times to similarly artistic women; each of the marriages ended in divorce rather quickly. He died at age 62 and his body lies in the famous Zentralfriedhof along with many of his contemporaries.

Loos' grave, left, and Schoenberg's, both at Zentralfriedhof

Loos first began to move away from the post-Romantic notions of the Secessionist movement in 1900 with his essay Spoken in the Void. The Secessionist movement was headed by Gustav Klimt, whose iconic portraits such as “The Kiss” and “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” are heeded as some of the great Viennese masterpieces. The Secessionist movement’s credo was “Art for art’s sake”. They wanted to create a style which was completely theirs, owing nothing to historial tropes or the forefathers of the genre. Klimt’s art in particular is very representative of the aesthetic of fin-de-siecle Vienna: luxurious gold leaf laid in a landscape of jewel tones and crème skinned women. Loos formally denounced all association with these lavish ideals in his manifesto Ornament and Crime. The main ideals of the essay can be summed up in the following quote:

“The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from utilitarian objects.”

Loos despised the idea of ornate, unncesessary detail in cultural objects, particularly in furniture, clothing, and, unshockingly, architecture. In his opinion, these added details lengthened the process of the artisan’s creations to no significant benefit. A lacemaker, for example, goes to lengths to produce a tiny piece of textile which is sold for a small amount and is not functional on its own. A designer with a sewing machine, however, can create an entire body of work in the same amount of time the lacemaker spends producing one small textile and can also demand a higher price for it. Loos hypothesized that if “all objects would last as long aesthetically as they do physically, the consumer would pay a price for them that would enable the worker to earn more money and work shorter hours,” (Loos). The idea of frivolous ornament is thus impractical and simply foolish as it is not as appreciated as fine, simple craftsmanship. He observed these ideas from here on out in his buildings’ exteriors: simple, unobstructed, but still carefully crafted from fine materials. He did not limit this idea to architecture and physical art alone: “Absence of ornament has brought the other arts to unsuspected heights. Beethoven’s symphonies would never have been written by a man who had to walk about in silk, satin, and lace,” (Loos). Ornament and Crime acted as a catalyst to the ideas of the Viennese Modernist movement and subsequently to Schoenberg’s new evolution of the atonal school.

"The Next Schoenberg Concert"
by unknown
Caricature of Schoenberg's "next" concert, following the infamous Skandalkonzert of 1913

            Loos and Schoenberg first met in 1905 at a gathering at the home of of none other than Gustav Mahler, a composer who identified with neither the Secessionist or Modernist style completely. At this time- five years before Loos’ essay- both men rejected the idea of bourgeois. Loos wanted to sever the ties between the interior and exterior of a building or space so that the dweller of the habitation could savor their privacy and flourish within it on their own accords, free of the associations and pressures of societal claims. Schoenberg, however, wanted to put the inner-most feelings of a person (himself) on display by using music making and an organic expression of “innermost nature”. As their friendship continued through the years, Schoenberg prescribed to the ideas posed by Loos in his manifesto and beyond. Schoenberg’s eventual “emancipation of dissonance” through the creation of the twelve-tone serial system can be paired with Loos’ critique of ornament as parallel examples of critique on the luxe Viennese aesthetic of the fin-de-siecle period.

From left: Loos, Schoenberg, Gertrude Schoenberg, and Oskar Kokoschka (artist)
at a bar in Berlin, date unknown
Image credit: photographersdirect.com

When Schoenberg relocated to Los Angeles in the 1930s, he decided to undertake designing his own house rather than purchasing an already existing one. Loos had passed away in 1933 and, in tribute of his great admiration, Schoenberg specifically chose to design all of his home in the architect’s iconic style. This could be seen, for example, in the wall coverings: thin sheets of marble and wood rather than intricate wallpaper designs. Although Schoenberg’s works can hardly be seen as containing the “plain, undecorated simplicity” of Loos’ diatribe, their ideologies produced similar processes of creation which diverged greatly from the norm of their fin-de-siecle Vienna contemporaries. The outcome were styles that are still questioned by listeners and viewers today as abstract, unique, and revolutionary.

Secession House Photos

Hello, all!

Before I post my blog, I thought I'd share my photos of the Secession House with you!

These are from my trip to Vienna in 2012 with a summer music seminar, "Language of Lieder" through Westminster Choir College. It's a great program if you're looking for daily German instruction as well as cultural trips and lots of singing. (Link!) Lots of international students were attending the language academy at the same time, and one of my Icelandic friends (!) was actually working at the Secession in tickets and touring.

So .... to give you a better idea! Here it is.

Front door!

"To the age its art -
To art its freedom"

The Sacred Spring - official magazine of the Secession, published 1898 - 1903