The show was one of dozens of events and festivities marking the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I.
Despite organizing the workshop, considered to be a groundbreaking showcase of Viennese modernism, Klimt and his colleagues were not invited to the formal, official, celebrations.
In just a few months, the artists erected a wooden building designed by Josef Hoffmann, and curated the surrounding grounds, some 6,500 square meters and had 54 exhibition rooms, to include a café, courtyards, gardens, and a small cemetery.
[2][3] Gustav Klimt, the lead organizer of the event, had recently been under significant public criticism after his paintings for the University of Vienna, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were deemed pornographic.
The Kunstschau was also criticized and ultimately was a financial disaster, but many of the artists featured went on to have long and prominent career in Austria and around the world Klimt's painting, Der Kiss (engl: The Kiss) was bought by the Viennese government before the exhibition had finished, “as it was deemed a national interest."