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Klimt, Gustav |
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The work of the Austrian painter and illustrator
Gustav Klimt, b. July 14, 1862, d.
Feb. 6, 1918,
founder of the school of painting known as the Vienna Sezession,
embodies the high-keyed erotic, psychological, and aesthetic
preoccupations of turn-of-the-century Vienna's dazzling intellectual world.
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 91.2K, 1024 x 768 |
Love Painted: 1895 Detail of a well-dressed woman closing her eyes and abondonning herself to her first kiss. A gypsy-like man looks down on her about to kiss her. Museum der Stadt Wien Vienna |
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He has been called the preeminent exponent of ART NOUVEAU. Klimt began
(1883) as an artist-decorator in association with his brother and Franz
Matsoh. In 1886-92, Klimt executed mural decorations for staircases at the
Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; these confirmed
Klimt's eclecticism and broadened his range of historical references. Klimt
was a cofounder and the first president of the Vienna Secession, a group of
modernist architects and artists who organized their own exhibition society
and gave rise to the SECESSION MOVEMENT, or the Viennese version of Art
Nouveau. He was also a frequent contributor to Ver Sacrum, the group's
journal.
Among the important decorative projects undertaken by Klimt were his
celebrated Beethoven frieze (1902; Osterreichische Galerie), a cycle of
mosaic decorations for Josef Hofmann's Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905-09),
and numerous book illustrations. |
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The Beethoven Frieze |
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Detail from the first wall of the frieze depicting man's search of
happiness. This section shows a naked man and woman praying for the
knight (modelled on Gustav Mahler) who will set out in search of happiness.
Behind the man and woman is a second woman who gazes on in contemplation.
Above the knight other woman give the knight a laurel crown. Detail from the third wall of the frieze depicting man's search of happiness. This section shows the woman used in the repeating motif sitting. Her swirling hair and the gold behind her have a grain like wood. |
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The Beethoven Frieze (First Wall) Painted: 1902 Secession Building Vienna |
The Beethoven Frieze (Third Wall) Painted: 1902 Secession Building Vienna |
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The primal forces of sexuality, regeneration, love, and death form the
dominant themes of Klimt's work. His paintings of femmes fatales, such as
Judith I
(1901; Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna), personify the dark side of
sexual attraction.
The Kiss
(1907-08; Osterreichische Galerie) celebrates
the attraction of the sexes; and
Hope I (1903; National Gallery, Ottawa)
juxtaposes the promise of new life with the destroying force of death.
The sensualism and originality of Klimt's art led to a hostile reaction to
his three ceiling murals--Philosophy (1900), Medicine (1901), and
Jurisprudence (1902)--for the University of Vienna.
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Judith I Painted: 1901 Osterreichische Galerie Vienna |
Judith II |
 66.0K, 473 x 978 |
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MORE INFO The Kiss Painted: 1907-08 180 x 180 cm Österreichisches Galerie Wien Vienna |
Adele Bloch-Bauer I Painted: 1907 Oil and gold on canvas 138 x 138 Austrian Gallery Vienna |
 141.0K, 1000 x 765 |
 88.6K, 824 x 766 |
Danae Painted: 1907 Private collection Graz |
Emilie Floge Painted: 1902 (Detail from a portrait of Emilie Floge standing hand on hip, in a dress that she designed.) Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien Vienna |
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 62.6K, 592 x 767 |
Bildnis Fritza Riedler Painted: 1906 Oil on canvas 153 x 133cm Österreichische Galerie Vienna |
Die Jungfrau (The Virgin) Painted: 1913 Narodni Galerie Prague |
 115.1K, 1024 x 639 |
 35.2K, 391 x 766 |
Bildnis Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein Painted: 1905 Oil on canvas 180 x 90cm Neue Pinakothek Munich |
Die Tänzerin Painted: 1916-18 |
 125.4K, 492 x 1024 |
 223.6K, 868 x 1200 |
Mäda Primavesi Painted: 1912 |
Wasserschlangen I Painted: 1904-07 |
 117.9K, 402 x 1024 |
 43.3K, 510 x 741 |
Dame mit Cape |
Idylle |
 67.4K, 800 x 529 |
 193.3K, 860 x 1100 | Girl-friends Painted: 1916-17 |
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Klimt's style drew upon an enormous range of sources: classical Greek,
Byzantine, Egyptian, and Minoan art; late-medieval painting and the woodcuts
of
Albrecht Dürer;
photography and the symbolist art of Max Klinger; and the
work of both Franz von Stuck and Fernand Khnopff. In synthesizing these
diverse sources, Klimt's art achieved both individuality and extreme
elegance.
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