The birth of the Vienna Secession was brought about by collaboration among numerous painters, sculptors and architects, including Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann. For more than twenty years these pioneering figures mutually influenced each other as they created lasting monuments to the principles of artistic freedom. Published in conjunction with an exhibition commemorating the centennial of one of the pair's greatest accomplishments - the Stoclet Palace in Brussels - this book centres on the collaboration as a means of exploring the modernist movement at the turn of the century. Essays on Hoffmann's designs for the 1900 Paris World's Fair; the creation of the iconic Ver Sacrum building; the 1909 Internationale Kunstschau exhibition; and the history of the Stoclet Palace trace the rise of one of Europe's most fertile artistic eras. Readers will also learn about the role played by other prominent artists such as George Minne, Fernand Khnopff, Jan Toorop, and Frank Brangwyn as they explore the interplay of ideas that marked this important moment in western art.