Gustav Klimt

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Gustav Klimt, 1902

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Secession) movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects, many of which are on display in the Vienna Secession gallery. Klimt's primary subject is the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. His pencil drawings, which are very numerous, have been regarded by many as his greatest legacy.

Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which sold for a record $135 million in 2006. Neue Galerie, New York.

The Kiss. 1907–1908. Oil on canvas. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.

Mäda Primavesi. 1912. Oil on canvas. 150 × 110 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Contents

1 Life and art
2 Legacy
3 Selected works
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Sources
7 External links

Life and art

Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Austria, the second of seven children. His father (Ernst Klimt) was an engraver and was married to Anna Klimt (neé Finster). He lived in poverty for most of his childhood.

He was educated at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) in the years 1879–1883, and received training as an architectural decorator. He began his professional career painting interior murals in large public buildings on the Ringstraße. Klimt was also an honorary member of the Universities of Munich and Vienna.

In 1893 Klimt was commissioned to do three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. His three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and 'pornographic' material resulting in their not being displayed on the ceiling of the great Hall. All three paintings were eventually destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945. This would also be the last time Klimt accepted any public commissions to do work.

His work is distinguished by the elegant gold or coloured decoration, often phallic in shape that conceals the more erotic positions of the drawings he based many of his paintings on. This can be seen in [Judith I] (1901), and in The Kiss (1907–1908), and especially in [Danaë] (1907). Art historians note an eclectic range of influences contributing to Klimt's distinct style, including Egyptian, Minoan, Classical Greek, and Byzantine inspirations. Klimt was also inspired by the engravings of Albrecht Dürer, late medieval European painting, and Japanese Ukiyo-e. His works are also characterized by a rejection of earlier naturalistic styles, and the use of symbols or symbolic elements to convey psychological ideas and emphasize the "freedom" of art from traditional culture.

Klimt was one of the founding members of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) and of the periodical Ver Sacrum. He left the movement in 1908.

Klimt took annual summer holidays on the shores of Attersee and painted some of the landscapes he saw there.

He died in Vienna on February 6, 1918 of a stroke and was interred at the Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna. Numerous paintings were left unfinished.

Klimt has the distinction of being the artist with the highest selling price on a painting. Purchased for the Neue Galerie in New York by Ronald Lauder for a reported US $135 million, the 1907 portrait "Adele Bloch-Bauer I" deposed Picasso's 1905 "Boy With a Pipe" (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million) on or around June 19, 2006. This is one of the five paintings referred to below in the Legacy section and an NPR report.

Legacy

Klimt's work had a clear influence on the paintings of Egon Schiele.
In November of 2003, Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sold for $29,128,000.
Raoul Ruiz directed a biopic, Klimt, starring John Malkovich in the title role. The movie got its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2006.
Modifications of his work featuring main characters appear in the anime series Elfen Lied.
National Public Radio reported on January 17,2006 that "The Austrian National Gallery is being compelled by a national arbitration board to return five paintings by Gustav Klimt to a Los Angeles woman, the heir of a Jewish family that had its art stolen by the Nazis. The paintings are estimated to be worth at least $150 million."Burbank, Lunk [Austria to return paintings to Jewish heir], National Public Radio, 17 January 2006.
The Japanese graphic designer and anime artist Yoshitaka Amano has cited Klimt as an influence.
The opening and closing sequences for the anime Elfen Lied feature is based on Klimt's works.
The punk/new wave rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees was deeply influenced by Klimt to the point that the cover for their critically acclaimed 1982 album "A Kiss In The Dreamhouse" and its accompanying single was based on Klimt's artwork.

Selected works

Judith I, painted in 1901

Festsaal at the University of Vienna, with one of three Klimt paintings just visible in black and white at top right.

University of Vienna Festsaal ceiling paintings
Palais Stoclet mosaic in Brussels
Fable (1883)
The Theatre in Taormina (1886-1888)
Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater, Vienna (1888)
Portrait of Joseph Pembauer, the Pianist and Piano Teacher (1890)
Ancient Greece II (Girl from Tanagra) (1890 - 1891)
Portrait of a Lady (Frau Heymann?) (1894)
Music I (1895)
Sculpture (1896)
Tragedy (1897)
Music II (1898)
Pallas Athene (1898)
Portrait of Sonja Kipps (1898)
Fish Blood (1898)
Moving Water (1898)
Schubert at the Piano (1899)
After the Rain (Garden with Chickens in St Agatha) (1899)
Nymphs (Sliver Fish) (1899)
Philosophy (1899–1907) [link]
Nuda Veritas (1899)
Portrait of Serena Lederer (1899)
Medicine (1900–1907)
Music (Lithograph) (1901)
[Judith I] (1901)
[Buchenwald] (Birkenwald) (1901)
Gold Fish (To my critics) (1901–1902)
Portrait of Gertha Felsovanyi (1902)
Portrait of Emilie Floge (1902)
Beech Forest (1902)
Beech Forest I (1902)
Beethoven Frieze (1902) [link] [link]
Hope (1903)
Pear Tree (1903)
Jurisprudence (1903–1907) [link]
[Water Serpents I] (1904–1907)
Water Serpents II (1904–1907)
The Three Ages of Woman (1905)
Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1905)
Farm Garden (Flower Garden) (1905–1906)
Farm Garden with Sunflowers (1905-1906)
The Stoclet Frieze (1905-1909)
[Portrait of Fritsa Reidler] (1906)
Sunflower (1906-1907)
Hope II (1907-1908)
[Danaë] (1907)
[Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I] (1907)
Poppy Field (1907)
Schloss Kammer on the Attersee I (1908)
The Kiss (1907 - 1908)
Lady with Hat and Feather Boa (1909)
[Judith II] (Salomé) (1909)
Black Feather Hat (Lady with Feather Hat) (1910)
Schloss Kammer on the Attersee III (1910)
Farm Garden with Crucifix (1911-1912)
Apple Tree (1912)
Forester's House, Weissenbach on Lake Attersee (1912)
Portrait of Mada Primavesi (1912)
[Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II] (1912)
[The Virgins (Die Jungfrau)] (1913)
The Church in Cassone (1913)
Semi-nude seated, reclining (1913)
Semi-nude seated, with closed eyes (1913)
Portrait of Eugenia Primavesi (1913-1914)
Lovers, drawn from the right (1914)
Portrait of Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt (1914)
Semi-nude lying, drawn from the right (1914-1915)
Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer (1916)
Houses in Unterach on the Attersee (1916) [link]
Death and Life (1916)
Garden Path with Chickens (1916)
The Girl-Friends (1916-1917)
Woman seated with thighs apart, drawing (1916-1917)
The Dancer (1916 - 1918)
Leda (was destroyed) (1917)
Portrait of a Lady, en face (1917-1918)
The Bride (was unfinished) (1917-1918)
Adam and Eve (was unfinished) (1917-1918)
Portrait of Johanna Staude (was unfinished) (1917-1918)

Notes

Sources

Hubertus Czernin. Die Fälschung: Der Fall Bloch-Bauer und das Werk Gustav Klimts. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-7076-0000-9
Carl E. Schorske. "Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego" in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Vintage Books, 1981. ISBN 0394744780

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