Gustav Klimt and his paintings, prints, and art.
Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt was born in a small town near
Vienna in 1862 and educated at the Kunstgewerbe Art School. Klimt, as
well as other symbolist painters, were part of a 19th century movement
that infused art with mysticism by using mythology and dream imagery in
order to paint the language of the soul. Klimt, however, was one of the
most controversial. His use of symbolism in his work was considered too
deviant and his art was constantly being criticized for being both too
sensual and erotic. Klimt paintings that were so heavily disdained
during his time are today considered to be some of the most important
paintings ever to come out of Vienna.
Gustav Klimt began his career as an artist in 1883 when he formed
Kanstlercompanie (an organization consisting of a group of artists)
with his brother Ernest and a friend named Franz Matsch. They were
commissioned by theatres, museums and churches to decorate the walls
with murals and paintings. One of Klimt's most famous paintings Tragedy
was commissioned by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In 1893,
Klimt and Matsch had a falling out over a commission from the new
university of Vienna to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall. Klimt
never again accepted another public commission and the company
dissolved. Almost immediately following this break with Matsch, Klimt's
painting Philosophy was exhibited at the Paris World Fair and won the
Grand Prix.
Gustav Klimt paintings are distinguished visually by their elegant gold
backgrounds and mosaïc patterns. Thematically, Klimt celebrates life,
as demonstrated in The Kiss, a popular painting of a couple embracing
passionately. However, at times, his paintings also juxtapose the joy
of life with the certainty of death. Paintings such as Hope (a pregnant
woman surrounded by pale solemn faces) offer the viewer a unique and
profound experience of happiness at the beauty of life and sadness at
the inevitability of death simultaneously. Gustav Klimt died of
pneumonia in Vienna in 1918. Fortunately for the world, his work lives
on.
