Featured image is Gustav Klimt's 'Fish Blood,' drawn specifically for the March 1898 issue. Featuring work by Klimt, Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner, Max Fabiani, Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann, among others, Ver Sacrum published continuously until the 1903 opening of the Wiener Werkstätte, 'an event that produced dismay among the most culturally aristocratic of the Secessionists, who viewed the commitment of artists to the design of objects (especially industrial production or for mass commerce) as a debasement of the role of art,' according to author Valerio Terraroli. Featured image is reproduced from 'Ver Sacrum: The Vienna Secession Art Magazine 1898–1903.'įROM THE ARTBOOK BLOG CORY REYNOLDS | DATE Vienna Secession magic in 'Ver Sacrum' Conceived by Gustav Klimt, Max Kurzweil and Ludwig Hevesi, Ver Sacrum was founded in 1898 as the official magazine of the Viennese Secession, which had sprung into being the previous year. Ver Sacrum reveals the tremendous originality of the Jugendstil language, a cornerstone of modernity that elaborated new forms of design, illustration and print/editorial composition. Writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Maurice Maeterlinck, Knut Hamsun, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Richard Dehmel, Ricarda Huch, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and Arno Holz were published in its pages. During its six years of activity, 471 original drawings were made specifically for the magazine, along with 55 lithographs and copper engravings and 216 block prints, by artists such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner, Max Fabiani, Joseph Maria Olbrich and Josef Hoffmann. Ver Sacrum (meaning 'Sacred Spring' in Latin) was conceived by Gustav Klimt, Max Kurzweil and Ludwig Hevesi. Published for the 120th anniversary of this historic magazine, it reproduces all 120 regular issues-plus some special, limited-edition covers-in 1:1 scale, alongside a selection of block prints, lithographs and copper engravings.

This book gathers the covers of Ver Sacrum, the official magazine of the Vienna Secession, which ran from 1898 to 1903. With work by Klimt, Schiele and others, Ver Sacrum set the standard for magazine design

The vienna secession artists