Berlin Secession

The Berlin Secession was an artists’ association founded in 1898 to exhibit modern art independently of Berlin’s conservative art institutions. It helped establish Impressionism and related modern styles in Germany.

Verein Berliner Künstler: A Berlin artists’ association founded in 1841 that organized exhibitions and represented professional artists. Its conservative exhibition policies helped prompt younger artists to organize independently.
Walter Leistikow: A German painter known for landscapes and for helping organize the Berlin Secession. His organizing work helped bring the independent association into being.
Secession (art): An artists’ movement that breaks from an established art institution to exhibit independently. The Berlin group belonged to a wider European pattern of artists’ breakaway associations.
Neue Secession: A Berlin artists’ association founded in 1910 by artists who broke with the Berlin Secession. Its founding showed that disputes over exhibiting avant-garde art continued within the original group.
First Berlin Secession exhibition: The Berlin Secession’s inaugural exhibition, held in Berlin in 1899. It demonstrated that an independent association could attract substantial attention and public support.
Anton von Werner: A German painter and art administrator who directed the Berlin Academy and shaped the city’s official art institutions. His opposition to modern art sharpened the dispute that preceded the Secession.
Lovis Corinth: A German painter whose expressive portraits and history paintings bridged Impressionism and later modern styles. He joined the Secession and became its president after Liebermann.
Berlin Secession exhibition building: An exhibition hall in Berlin built for the Berlin Secession and opened in 1899. A dedicated venue gave the association control over how its exhibitions were presented.
Expressionism: A modern art movement that distorts form and color to convey emotional or subjective experience. The Secession’s growing resistance to Expressionism helped provoke a younger generation’s breakaway.
Edvard Munch: A Norwegian painter and printmaker whose work explored psychological tension, illness, and isolation. His presentation at the Secession’s 1892 exhibition had provoked a major controversy before the group formed.

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Vienna SecessionRelated: It was a later, parallel response to institutional control of art exhibitions.