Klimt (Discovering Art)

Title: KLIMT

Author: D M Gill

Format: Hardback

Publisher: Brockhampton Press, ISBN: 1860191452, Year: 1996

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is a towering figure in the art of fin-de siecle Vienna, and his influence has endured long into the twentieth century. Working in a city undergoing overwhelming social and political upheaval, he led what appeared to be a quiet life, yet enjoyed an interesting relationship with women. He was the first of the Modern painters to come out of Vienna, yet his art cannot truthfully be said to have been influenced by any of his contemporaries.

Following a brief Impressionist phase, Klimt was recognized mainly for his Symbolism, before breaking away to form the Vienna Secession in 1897. He studied at Vienna's School of Decorative Art, and soon became a popular fixture among Viennese society, accepting commissions for his murals from leading figures, including royalty. His youth, originality and rebellion made him a natural leader for the Secession, which freed art, including applied arts and architecture, from the stifling confines of the Kiinstlerhaus and traditionally minded organizations.

Exquisitely patterned backgrounds, jewelled, elaborate female portraits, and rich and exotic influences characterize the best of Klimt's paintings, and he vividly captured the sumptuousness and artificiality of late nineteenth-century Vienna. This evocative and fully illustrated book examines Klimt's flamboyant and opulent style, his influences and impressions, and his curiously conservative yet complex private life. Klimt's vivid images and gorgeously ornamented paintings contain the contradictions which allow them to be admired and thought relevant today, and they are celebrated here in this thoughtful and detailed study of his life and his work.