The Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession is the world’s oldest independent exhibition institution specifically dedicated to contemporary art.
The world-famous Secession building designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich and the works of the association’s founding members of the Secession were instrumental in defining the Viennese brand of Jugendstil. One key work of this epoch that is still housed—albeit with interruptions—at the Secession is Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, created for the Secessionists’ XIVth exhibition in 1902. The theme of the frieze, the yearning for happiness, was inspired by Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.