Gustav Klimt
Biography and Paintings of Austrian Artist,
Leader of Viennese Secession Movement.
|
Gustav Klimt |
|
POSTERS
OF KLIMT |
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)The Austrian painter Gustav Klimt, a leading figure in the Viennese Sezession movement and the wider Art Nouveau (Jugenstil) style of decorative art, has become one of the world's most valuable artists. Biography Born at Baumgarten, Vienna, the son of an engraver, between 1876 and 1883 he studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Vienna. With his brother Ernst he formed an artist-decorators firm which produced paintings for public buildings. His early large-scale decorative works were followed in 1894 by a commission to produce designs for a painted ceiling at the city's University Hall. Klimt presented his designs for three works - Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine - in 1896. Two years later he was asked to carry out the work in conjunction with Franz Matsch, who was to paint the centrepiece and a fourth work - Theology. |
|
MODERN ARTISTS |
 Adele Bloch-bauer II (1912) |
By this time Klimt had already been made president of Vienna's Secession movement, the Austrian part of the European wide rebellion of artists intent on seceding from the official academies of art and promoting their art in opposition to them. His art had undergone a radical change, partly as a result of his assimilation of Jugenstil and the work of the Munich Secessionists. His composition Pallas Athene (1898), shown at the second Secession exhibition marks this style. It is characterized by frontality, interest in surface pattern, and the use of gold and other metal. Its inclusion of a tiny naked figure in the lower left hand part of the canvas anticipates his later paintings and decorative schemes in which sexuality was a predominant theme - one that often caused offence. Klimt's use of a variety of exotic materials was an important device. His interest in ornament was further stimulated by a visit to see the Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna in 1903; it featured in his largest allegorical frieze for the Secession's Beethoven exhibition of 1902 (also highly controversial) and reached a climax in the huge piece of mosaic art which Klimt designed for the Stoclet Palace, known as the Stoclet Frieze (1905-11). |
|
HISTORY OF FINE
ARTS BEST
MODERN ART WORLDS TOP ARTISTS MEANING OF ART |
Philosophy was exhibited in March 1900 at the Secession, and its stress on female nudity caused a scandal amongst Viennese academics, the public and the press. Medicine had a similar reception the following year. Jurisprudence, shown at the Secession's retrospective for Klimt in 1903 was the most decorative of the three, but also the most stylized and abstract in design. The influence of the Symbolist painter Jan Toorop is clearly visible in the work. In 1905, Klimt resigned his commission for the University paintings, and - together with a group of like-minded artists - left the Secession movement. In 1908-9, they staged 2 exhibitions under the name Kunstschau (art spectacle). The first show featured Austrian arts and crafts as well as a display of Klimt portraits and allegorical works, such as The Kiss (1908), his most famous work. This painting aroused strong feelings on both sides, being both ridiculed and purchased by the state. In his portrait art - a genre which brought him social connections as well as attractive fees - Klimt focused on women, painting portraits of the wives of rich Austrians (eg. Adele Bloch-Bauer, Marie Henneberg, Eugenia Primavesi). Although he had begun this line of work around the turn of the century, he devoted more and more time to it after the second Kunstschau (1909), using a simpler, more painterly style, devoid of dazzling ornamental effects. It was not until 1917 that his art appeared ready to make another stylistic turn - possibly influenced by his knowledge of Egon Schiele's work. But Klimt did not live long enough to fully explore any new directions. Klimt's reputation as an artist rests chiefly on his decorative skills, in particular his use of the flat surface (Egyptian art style), colour, gold ornamentation and mosaic motifs (Byzantine art style). Like artists from these earlier eras, he resorted to complex symbolism to present his ideas, except in his case the emphasis on subtle suggestion clashed head-on with his views on the dated nature of 19th century morality and his desire to break free from the taboos of fin de siecle Vienna. Recently, as a result of Ronald S Lauder's 2006 purchase of Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) for a reported $135 million, and the 2006 sale of Adele Bloch-bauer II (1912) at Christie's New York for $87.9 million, Klimt has been catapulted to the top ranks of the world's greatest artists - leapfrogging the great Pablo Picasso, the Impressionist Claude Monet and the Expressionist Vincent Van Gogh in the process. He now has two works in the World's Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings. In terms of Klimt's technical skills, or his ability to create outstanding art, this new found fame makes absolutely no sense. Even so, The Kiss remains one of the world's most popular and iconic images, indicating perhaps that his emphasis on "glitter" lends him an easily acceptable image in the Post-Modernist era. Paintings by Klimt hang in the best art museums throughout the world. |
|
• For more biographies, see: Famous
painters. • To update this biography of Viennese Secessionist painter Gustav Klimt, click Here.
Art
Movements | Art Glossary
| Art Questions | Sitemap:
International Art |
