Beethoven Frieze

Gustav Klimt created the famous Beethoven Frieze for the XIV exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists of Austria Secession, which took place from April 15 to June 27, 1902. In this exhibition – conceived as a homage to the composer Ludwig van Beethoven – the idea of the Secessionist Gesamtkunstwerk found its best expression. Under the direction of Josef Hoffmann, a total of 21 artists participated in the exhibition.

The centerpiece of the exhibition was Max Klinger's Beethoven statue, placed in the main hall. In addition to Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, murals and decorations by Alfred Roller, Adolf Böhm, Ferdinand Andri, and numerous other artists were on display. The declared goal of the exhibition was to bring together the individual arts – architecture, painting, sculpture, and music – under a common theme: the "artwork" was to emerge from the interplay of spatial design, murals, and sculpture.

Klimt's monumental wall cycle was located in the left side hall, which visitors to the exhibition entered first. A breakthrough in the wall opened up a view of Max Klinger's Beethoven statue and, upon entry, already alluded to the interaction of architecture, painting (Klimt's Beethoven Frieze), and sculpture (Klinger's Beethoven).

The XIV exhibition attracted almost 60,000 visitors, making it one of the Secession's greatest public successes. Furthermore, it was of fundamental importance for the development of Klimt and numerous other participating artists: the ideal of the collaboration of various arts and the cooperation tried and tested in the Beethoven exhibition were successfully continued by, among others, the Wiener Werkstätte.