SEZESSION

1898 - 1918

The Secession style celebrated on this first B114 - personalised by Unexpected Custom - is not the floral, Spring style of the Alfons Mucha posters. On the other hand it brings back memories of an architectural style, visual fragments of buildings seen on different journeys, both near and far away in time and space.

In this "Sacred Spring" - Ver Sacrum - the main color is blue, while next to gold we find purple.
The opalescent purple of Winter sunsets.
The shades of green remind us more of bronze oxidation than hope.
And next to the window with voluptuous lines, "the year was dying so sweetly"...

But there’s no decadent self-satisfaction here, no dandy’s lament.
We rather see memories or Nordic nostalgia.
The golden dome of the Secession building, the peculiar shapes of the Batlló house or a caryatid detail on the facade of a Riga palace.

The grey earth in the trenches swallows the Belle Époque lightness whole.
The Spanish fever virus infects all survivors.
In Vienna Egon Schiele portrays his wife Edith as she’s dying in the spasms of the same pandemic disease that will take him away.

Sarah Bernhardt clothes become military uniforms then black shirts then brown shirts.

Technique:
gold leaf, copper leaf, mother of pearl, transparent colors for glass, Swarovski studs.