Barnes & NobleGustav Klimt by Michael Kerrigan

Gustav Klimt is now celebrated as a quintessential artist of the Art Nouveau movement, but he was one of a number of Viennese artists who strove to break constraints of the late 19th century academic art establishment. Secessionists were united, not in the style of their work, but their desire for freedom. The 1890s were a time of sweeping change across the world of art. Inspired by the Munich and Berlin Secessions, and the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts movements developing across Europe, a group of Austrian artists sought to do something innovative and exciting. They found inspiration in the powerful messages of literature and music, promoting new art through their magazine Ver Sacrum, and holding exhibitions in their own Secession Building, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich. They celebrated art from around the globe; giving equal billing to both fine and applied arts. Their 14th exhibition, dedicated to Beethoven, culminated in a staggering frieze by Klimt which encapsulated the mingling of art, music, literature and beauty in a depiction of human longing for happiness in a world of suffering everything the Secession was about. Although there are echoes of similarity in the work of Klimt, Egon Schiele, Kolomon Moser and the many other fine artists, their distinction lies in their magnificent difference.