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ONLINECOLLECTION

Overdoor Relief for 14th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession (replica by Willi Kopf, 2011), 1902

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Wood, white painted
93.5×96.1×17.5 cm

Artists

  • Willi Kopf

    (born 1949 in Röthis)

  • Josef Hoffmann

    (Pirnitz 1870–1956 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG4

The 14th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession, called the “Beethoven Exhibition”, the highlights of which were the sculpture by Max Klinger (1857–1920) and Gustav Klimt’s (1862–1918) Beethoven Frieze, was given a design in the spirit of the occasion by Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956). “Limitations of means available and the self-evident duty of using genuine materials throughout, of resolutely avoiding make-believe and lie, equally demand adhering to the greatest simplicity in material and form vocabulary,” the exhibition catalogue [^1] said. The relief, jokingly referred to by Hoffmann as “crystallized plaster,” filled a wall niche above the entrance into the right lateral gallery of the Secession building. Hoffmann’s rhythmicized arrangement of upright rectangular blocks, which are based on architectural principles, anticipates tendencies of geometric abstraction as were introduced into art only years later by artists like František Kupka (1871–1957), Kazimir Malevich (1878–1935), and Georges Vantongerloo (1886–1965).

[^1] XIV. Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession Wien. Klinger Beethoven, Wien 1903, S. 23 (Ausst.-Kat. Secession Wien, Wien, 15.04.–27.06.1902).

Object data

Artist/author
  • Willi Kopf
  • Josef Hoffmann
Title
Overdoor Relief for 14th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession (replica by Willi Kopf, 2011)
Date
1902
Category
Sculpture
Material​/technique
Wood, white painted
Dimensions
93.5×96.1×17.5 cm
Credit line of the permanent loan
Hummel Collection, Vienna
Selection of Reference works
  • Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
  • Eduard F. Sekler: Josef Hoffmann. Das architektonische Werk: Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Salzburg/Wien 1982.
Catalogue raisonne
  • Sekler 1986: 65
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

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