Hidden Modernism – The Search for the “New Human”
4 Sep 2025 - 18 Jan 2026
Around 1900, many Viennese artists sought an alternative to industrial society. Inspired by Nietzsche and Wagner, they turned to spirituality, nature and new forms of living. The Secession dreamed of the Gesamtkunstwerk, Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach founded a commune, and theosophy was discussed at vegetarian gatherings.
Women, too, found new spaces in this movement – in settlement reform, expressive dance or spiritism. At the same time, artists like Edvard Munch, August Strindberg and Arnold Schönberg experimented with visions, trance states and the idea of the “auratic human.” These impulses paved the way for abstract art.
The exhibition “Hidden Modernism” in Leopold Museum presents this fascinating chapter in Vienna for the first time – linking ideals, esotericism and modern psychology with questions of our present.
