Secession, Vienna I (diptych)

In 1998, Neue Galerie New York commissioned contemporary artist Vera Lutter to photograph the Secession building in Vienna. This large-format, unique print, in which the image is reversed like a negative, was made with an enormous camera obscura -- an early photographic device known to artists since the Renaissance.

After studying the building’s site on the Karlsplatz, Lutter determined the best point of view. Then, in June of 1999, she constructed a cabin directly across from the building. A lens built into the front of the cabin turned it into a giant “camera.” The façade was then projected through the lens onto a large piece of photographic paper. Lutter shut herself in the completely darkened room for several hours to ensure the exposure would not be disturbed. The artist calls her works “unique inscriptions of light.”

The building in this photograph housed the revolutionary Vienna Secession, founded in April of 1897 by a group of avant-garde artists led by the painter Gustav Klimt. The Secessionists resigned from the conservative artists’ association that dominated the local scene. They vowed to present exhibitions organized in a democratic fashion that emphasized artistic merit over commercial concerns. They also invited artists from other countries to show their work. Karl Wittgenstein, a retired businessman and philanthropist, provided the funds for their exhibition building. Designed by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, it was completed in 1898. Above its entrance is the motto provided by the critic Ludwig Hevesi. — “Der Zeit ihre Kunst/Der Kunst ihre Freiheit” — “To the Age its Art, To Art its Freedom.”