Alicia Wall: Golden Vienna

I recently went to Melbourne to see the Vienna: Art and Design Exhibition
at the National Gallery of Victoria. What an experience, finally getting to see all of the works that I have learnt and am still learning about at Univesity. I think the more I see the better experiences and explanations I can provide for my future students when teaching them about Visual Arts and Design.

One of my favourite artists from the exhibition...

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession movement, a group of unconventional young artists that rejected conservatism and instead, explored the possibilities of art outside the confines of academic tradition.

Klimt came from an artistic but impoverished background with his father being both a goldsmith and an engraver. He left school at the age of 14 and made the decision to train at the Viennese School of Applied Arts where his artistic talent soon became apparent.

As an artist, Klimt first made himself known by the decorations he produced for numerous theatres and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects which were admired for their sumptuous beauty but notorious for their erotic content, marked by his primary subject of the female body. This was one of the most common themes that Klimt used in his artworks – the femme fatale.

Klimt’s ‘golden period’ reflected his success and ability to blend the various elements of his style into a unique fusion of visual splendor and eroticism. This golden phase was marked by positive critical reaction and success with many of his painting using gold leaf. This period of Klimt’s artistic career was made up of three basic components: art nouveau, symbolism and early mosaics. The most obvious links that Klimt has with art nouveau are his use of sinuous, flowing lines and exuberant pattern making.

Klimt’s work is also distinguished by elegant, gold or coloured decoration, spirals and swirls, and phallic shapes used to conceal the more erotic positions of the drawings upon which many of his paintings are based. As an artist, he was largely interested in painting figures evident in his works. Klimt’s use of bright colours and striking figures allowed him to break with the taste and morality of the time which allowed him to shape a new era and create change in the art world.

Art historians have noted an eclectic range of influences that contributed to Klimt’s unique style including Egyptian, Minoan, Classical Greek and Byzantine inspirations. He was also inspired by the engravings of Albrecht Durer, late medieval European painting, and Japanese Rimpa School.

As an artist, Klimt was also interested in exploring Freudian issues surrounding psychoanalysis in his works such as sexual repression and castration theory. These issues gave his work a dark intricacy that would be highly influential for future artists.

Klimt’s most celebrated painting is ‘The Kiss’ which was produced in 1907 – 1908 at the peak of his golden period. His exploration of the ‘embrace’ and the ‘kiss’ was a very common theme prevalent in symbolist art. These themes also featured in the work of Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele which all emphasized suggestion and evocation, rather than on representation of the concrete world.

Gustav Klimt
The Kiss
1907-08

Other key works of Klimt include ‘Music I’ 1895, ‘The Beethoven Frieze’ 1902, ‘Danae’ 1907-08, ‘The Stoclet Frieze’ 1909-11 and ‘Death and Life’ 1911-15.