Exactly 100 years after the death the fathers of the Viennese Secession (Klimt, Schiele, Moser and Wagner), the exhibition Beyond Klimt investigates the dense exchange of ideas that led to the emergence of avant-garde movements such as surrealism, expressionism, new realism, constructivism, Bauhaus. On show there are works of about 80 artists, besides Klimt and Schiele himself, including Oskar Kokoschka, Koloman Moser, László Mohaly-Nagy, František Kupka and Alfred Kubin.

Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918) has always been considered a mentor for many successive generations of artists, as he had embodied the artistic imagination of the Vienna Fin de Siècle, promoting the drive towards the internationalization of art with the Viennese Secession. His favorite pupil was Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918).

The end of WWI and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also meant the revival of major developments in the art world. Political and economic shifts led to artistic migrations, new ideas and perspectives and new artistic networks sprang up all over the place. Artists met up in arts centres and international associations and used magazines to communicate across political borders. They believed their artistic identity was more important than their nationality.