BASMENTS
Basements exist beneath the surface. They are dark, frightening and full of spiders and cobwebs. In the basements we hide things. We keep things that we are afraid to express and prefer to repress.
On the flip side, basements brim with mystery. In the underground our senses open up to something beyond what we know or are able to explain. In basements we can awake our curiosity, engage our brains and have a lucky strike.
So, do not be afraid to visit the basement of the Secession building in Vienna.
You will have an astonishing adventure.
THE EXHIBITION
In 1902 the Secession artists created an extraordinary “Beethoven extravaganza” exhibition. They dedicated it to the famous German composer, a long-time Viennese resident, on the 75th anniversary of his death. The exhibition was a massive success and scandalised the gossip-thirsty Vienna.
A statue of Beethoven occupied the middle of the main exhibition hall.
The sculpture was a labor of love for its author, 15 years in the making. He wanted to express the vulnerability of a great talent.
The statue presented a frail little man, sitting on a big throne, with a passionate expression and clinched fists. What did the public and critics see? “It was a man revealing himself. It appears as if the composer emerged from a bath, put on a towel to protect his modesty and extended one foot as if awaiting a chiropodist” Really!
Around the sculpture 21 artists displayed their works.
The contemporary Viennese composer Gustav Mahler made an adapted version of the prominent “Ode of Joy “ of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
He positioned 6 trombonists on the stairs and arranged they played it at the exhibition opening.
KLIMT’S FRIEZE
Gustav Klimt painted a Frieze as a tribute to the Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. He also generated the main scandal.
Frieze is a mural painted as a wide horizontal band on a wall close to the ceiling. Klimt painted three walls.
The first wall presents the theme “Longing for happiness”. Three naked figures plead to a knight in shining armour to ease their suffering. The knight gazes across to the middle wall.
The middle mural is titled “The hostile powers”.
The centre is occupied by a monkey-monster. with his three daughters Gorgons presenting lust, immorality and lack of control.
Above them are his other three daughter called sickness, madness and death.
A lone figure of a half-naked monk is painted on the right.
On the last wall hope arrives as a figure of Poetry. A group of women representing Arts lead us to the “Choir of Angels from Paradise”. They sing the “Ode of Joy”. Finally, a couple are embracing.
The symbolism of the Frieze was explained to the public in a specially printed brochure.
The official reaction was moral outrage. The Frieze was called “painted pornography” with “dangling dugs”and an “ecstatic tribute”.
Klimt’s raw and intense painting was far too much for the refined taste of conservative Vienna.
ODE OF JOY IN THE BASEMENT
Luckily, after closing the exhibition the Frieze stayed there for another year.
Later it was cut into eight pieces, stored for 12 years in a furniture depot and changed ownership frequently.
Eventually, the Austrian government acquired and restored the Frieze.
In 1985 it build a special room with optimum climate conditions in the “Golden cabbage’s” basement and displayed the Frieze there.
In 2020, for the 250th birthday of Beethoven, The Wiener Simphoniker delivered a multimedia experience for the visitors to the Secession basement.
Now we could look at the Klimt’s Frieze, listen to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and appreciate the story of the gifted suffering artist.
Music translates into a visual art.
Enjoyment is enhanced.
