Hidden Modernism. The Fascination with the Occult around 1900

Towards the end of the 19th century, the longing for spiritual renewal grew stronger. In their quest for divine wisdom, occultists turned to ancient Indian and Gnostic writings – including in Vienna. Theosophical workshops on the Cobenzl and vegetarian lunch tables in the city center became new think tanks. Séances were dedicated to the search for the fourth dimension. Many artists, too, were touched by the esoteric belief in invisible rays and subtle modes of existence: with their X-ray vision, they penetrated to the bones and made human bodies shine with an auratic glow.

Advocates of life reform came together in vegetarian settlements. The dress reform movement promoted the wearing of light tunics: away with corsets and tailcoats! They rejected smallpox vaccination and campaigned against medical experiments on animals. The Bavarian painter and apostle of freedom Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851–1913) founded one of the first rural communes in Europe on the outskirts of Vienna. His trademarks: long hair, prophetic beard, undyed monk’s robes, and sandals.

The exhibition offers an overview of a wide range of movements united by a common stance: criticism of industrialization, of authoritarian society, and of the religion of money. Vegetarians, Buddhists, and mathematicians experimenting with spiritualism agreed on a common enemy: "materialism", which they sought to combat – or at least to counterbalance – by elevating the spiritual. Approaches to occult truths varied: they might be found in the scientific laboratory, in healing nature, or in the study of the spiritual didactic poem "Bhagavad Gita". The envisioned "higher development of humanity" presupposed an inner reform of the individual: the lost balance between body, mind, and soul had to be restored.

The exhibition tour begins in the era of Historicism and with composer Richard Wagner’s search for artistic answers to metaphysical questions. Wagner’s music sent the young into trances, and his reflections on animal protection sparked a wave of vegetarianism. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was another hero of the age. He mocked the metaphysical consolations offered by traditional religions. His doctrine of radical immanence inspired those who sought to transcend themselves through gymnastics, fasting, and meditation.

Another chapter provides insight into Vienna’s occult-reformist circles. The activist Marie Lang (1858–1934) combined theosophical ideas with feminist engagement. At the other end of the political spectrum stood Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874–1954), who bundled his antisemitic and social-Darwinist ideas into "Ariosophy" and founded a far-right male order. Here the prefascist side of an ideology becomes visible, one that distinguished between "inferior" and "chosen" people. Occult notions of "degenerate" or "higher" life flowed into the racial mania of National Socialism. 

The chapter on spiritualism presents a fashion that came from the United States and washed into Austria in several waves. Mostly female mediums claimed to communicate with voices from the beyond. Spiritualism united all aspects of the occult: the belief in another reality, the parascientific interest in unexplored phenomena, and the entertaining thrill of table-turning. Artists such as Munich’s star painter Albert von Keller (1844–1920) staged séances and painted portraits of mediums. This section also features the extraordinary drawings of Viennese artist Gertrude Honzatko-Mediz (1893–1975), created under the alleged guidance of the dead.

Examples by František Kupka, Wassily Kandinsky, and Johannes Itten document the enormous influence of occultist teachings on the development of abstract painting. Oskar Kokoschka, in his portraits, was fascinated by nerve plexuses, which in occultism were considered vital organs. According to the doctrine, nerve pathways served to transmit vibrations into the ether

The finale of Hidden Modernism is devoted to life reform, the practical side of the struggle against materialism. Here the critical spirit of the age reveals itself in all its variety. A hotel in Baden near Vienna offered Zander exercise machines, preserved from the days of Empress Elisabeth; Sisi trained her body on Zander apparatuses. Mountaineering, another of the empress’s passions, became the supreme discipline of the “new human.” Alpinism combined Stoic philosophy with physical fitness, self-optimization with emerging sports brands. A concluding outlook on dance modernism leads into the 1920s, when the First Republic held out the prospect of unknown freedoms. Dancers and choreographers such as Susanne Schmida (1894–1981) developed movements into a holistic way of life, drawing on yoga, gymnastics, and Nietzschean thought.

Curators: Matthias Dusini, Ivan Ristić

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