Of curlicues and gold: Klimt
““I am less interested in myself as a subject for painting than I am in other people, above all women.” ”
So much, I didn’t know where to begin. So I made this video.
Some odds-and-ends I found when learning more about Klimt:
part of The Beethoven frieze
Klimt and his brother, who grew up in poverty, both moved into the arts at early ages. After Viiennese art schools, they eventually they formed a business with another artist, and were commissioned to create several immense murals and friezes in the city of Vienna.
You may have seen the movie! Gustav Klimt's now legendary Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), stolen by the Nazis in Austria in the late 1930s and eventually restituted to the heirs of the original owner following a lengthy, international court battle.
The woman in Klimt’s Woman in Gold is Adele Bloch-Bauer, whose husband commissioned Klimt to paint two portraits of his wife when she was 25 years old. The first and most famous of the two later became known as Woman in Gold. Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann set out to reclaim the famous Klimt painting from the Austrian government.
Klimt was active in the Vienna Secession, an art movement, similar to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects. It was in protest against the support for traditional artistic styles and marked the beginning of modern art in Austria, a nation that was attached to a highly conservative tradition. The portrait of pianist Pembauer, at a time when the movement was beginning, reflects both the traditional style, and the more abstract, art nouveau background.
The Gustav Klimt Exhibition at Ateliers des Lumières in Paris. Klimt art and life digitally exhibited on massive wall surfaces surrounding visitors in sound. Walls and floor were covered with colors from his paintings, the projections changing constantly.
Lastly, I was lucky enough to visit the Klimt museum in Vienna in 2015. And it came, as all museums do, with a gift shop. I bought what I could afford: bookmarks and…oh, yes…this scarf. Quintessential Klimt, do you not agree?
It is a long scarf, silky in nature and this is just a part of it. I think it quite magnificent and am looking forward to wearing it OUT again when things get back to somewhat-normal.
And, Housemates, look for your month’s freebie in an email today or tomorrow…