Following an analysis of the university pictures,6ustav Klimt: The Beethoven Frieze goes on to look in detail at the frieze Klimt created for the legendary Beethoven Exhibition in 1902.The outstanding importance of that exhibition as a 'total work of art' incorporating several arts.

The early years of the twentieth century saw a dramatic turning point in the work of Gustav Klimt. The controversy that blew up over his monumental works for the ceiling of the ceremonial hall of Vienna University, as well as his 'scandalous' wall-paintings for the Beethoven Exhibition at the Vienna Secession, led to a profound personal crisis that ultimately drove him to withdraw from public commissions.Following an analysis of the university pictures,6ustav Klimt: The Beethoven Frieze goes on to look in detail at the frieze Klimt created for the legendary Beethoven Exhibition in 1902.The outstanding importance of that exhibition as a 'total work of art' incorporating several arts, and also the key role the frieze played in Klimt's oeuvre, are highlighted by cultural and art-historical analyses that look in particular at the controversy's public context and its continued relevance in debates over the scope of artistic freedom in public art.

An extensive appendix containing a selection of key contemporary texts, an illustrated biography and a glossary provides essential background information.

Stephan Koja

Foreword

Carl E. Schorske

Gustav Klimt's Faculty Paintings and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego

Alice Strobl

Klimt's Studies for the Faculty Paintings Philosophy, Medicine

a n d Jurisprudence

Gallery I

Stephan Koja

"... just about the nastiest women I have ever seen ..."

Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze: Evolution and Programme

Gallery II

Franz A. J. Szabo

Reflections on the Beethoven Frieze and its Relation

to the Work of Gustav Klimt

Manfred Koller

The technique and conservation of the Beethoven Frieze

Verena Perlhefter

Biography

The Klimt controversy in contemporary documents

Rosa Sala Rose

Glossary

Bibliography

Index