Gavin Plumley
Wednesday 15th May 2019
“The Beethoven Frieze: ‘The Longing
for Happiness’, (detail)”
Gustav Klimt: 1902: Secession Building, Vienna.
Synopsis
Gustav Klimt and his colleagues broke away from the imperially endorsed art institutions in Vienna in 1897 and founded the Secession. The same year, Gustav Mahler arrived to take charge of the city’s grand Opera House. Both Gustavs proved to be trailblazing but troublesome in their pursuit of utopia through art, not least in the Beethoven Exhibition on which they collaborated at the Secession in 1902. Comparing these two fin-de-siècle talents, this lecture places Klimt and Mahler in context, asking what fundamentally links and, indeed, divides them.
Lecturer’s CV
Gavin Plumley is a cultural historian specialising in the art and music of Central Europe at the turn of the last century. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and written for The Guardian. Gavin has lectured widely, including at the National Gallery, the British Museum, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, the Tate, the V&A and the Neue Galerie, New York and he speaks regularly for the Arts Society and the Art Fund, both at home and abroad. www.gavinplumley.com