one of the founder members of the sezession was the architect otto wagner.is design for the postal savings bank of vienna confidently transports the principles of the sezessionists into the 20th century. it's a classical building, but there's no vainglory, no false monumentality. the use of materials takes pride of place-- the newest, including aluminum, combined with the oldest, including marble-- to produce a result startling in its modernity, given its date of 1904. but most of all, it was the sezessionist painters and their successors-- first klimt, then schiele and kokoschka-- who possessed the power most effectively to disrupt the conservative values of viennese society. in 1902, for the 14th sezessionist exhibition, gustav klimt, most important of the sezessionist painters, painted this friezelike work in homage to one of the great figures of the 19th century-- beethoven. the beethoven frieze is concerned with the highest ideals of art. it portrays the conflict between the human desire for happiness, love, and fulfillment, set against the fact of evil