#Klimts the kiss series

Both are wearing intricately embellished robes, the man being entwined in a golden cloak with irregular black and white rectangles and the woman pictured in a skin-tight dress with flower motifs. They are so close that their bodies merge together into one massive patterned silhouette. The canvas portrays a couple of lovers locked in a tight and fervent embrace. One of Klimt’s most discussed and praised paintings is ‘The Kiss.’ Patterns of intimacy Often ground-breaking, sexually explicit and shocking to the public, his works challenge our visual perception and make us wonder whether we even remotely understand the message encoded in all those tricky images and unexpected colors. He painted whatever he liked the way he liked and didn’t care about ‘noble standards’ of high art. Purchased by the Austrian government while still unfinished, The Kiss helped restore Gustav Klimt's reputation after the controversy surrounding his work on the Great Hall of the University of Vienna.Gustav Klimt was a scandalous artist. It boldly incorporates the organic lines and boldly natural content that flow through the painting and decorative arts of the era. The Kiss is considered to be one of the defining pieces from the Art Nouveau movement. His pieces Fulfillment and Expectation are considered to be some of his best decorative work. In 1904, Gustav Klimt collaborated with other artists on the decoration of Palais Stoclet, the home of a wealthy Belgian patron. Klimt's work with gold leaf shows influences from Byzantine art and the mosaics of Venice and Ravenna, Italy, travel destinations for the artist during the time. Two of the best-known are the Adele Bloch-Bauer I from 1907 and The Kiss completed in 1908. The name comes from the use of gold leaf in many paintings of the time. Gustav Klimt's Golden Phase was his most successful critically and financially. 1903-1907, oil, silver, and gold on canvas. Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (detail), ca. The face of Ludwig van Beethoven in the painting resembles that of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler.

However, the painting was preserved and finally displayed publicly again in 1986. The painting was inten for the 14th Vienna Secession exhibition, was intended only for the exhibition itself. Nazi military forces destroyed all three paintings during World War II. The paintings, which were the last public commission accepted by Klimt, were never displayed on the ceiling. The symbolic and erotic themes incorporated in the work were criticized as pornographic.

#Klimts the kiss series

To please many is bad.'Īround 1900, Klimt completed a series of three paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. Above the nude, red-headed woman in the painting, Klimt included the following quote by Friedrich Schiller: 'If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please only a few. In 1899, Gustav Klimt completed Nuda Veritas, a painting he expected would rattle the academic art establishment. The supported their efforts by providing land for the construction of an exhibition hall. The Vienna Secession did not encourage any particular style of art, but rather promoted artistic freedom as a philosophical idea. The Vienna Secession aimed to provide exhibition opportunities for unconventional emerging artists and bring the work of foreign artists to Vienna. In 1897, Gustav Klimt became a founding member and the president of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists with a shared interest in painting outside the academic tradition. He soon developed a new style that was more symbolic and erotic in tone. The personal tragedy impacted Klimt's work. His specialty was architectural painting.Īfter graduating, Klimt, his brothers, and his friend Franz Matsch founded the Company of Artists and began receiving commissions for public projects and murals. In 1888, Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef I honored Gustav Klimt with the Golden Order of Merit for his work on murals in the Vienna Burgtheater.įour years later, in 1892, tragedy struck: Klimt's father and brother Ernst died in the same year, leaving Gustav financially responsible for their families. Klimt and his brothers, Ernst and George, showed artistic talent at an early age.Īt age 14, Gustav Klimt enrolled in the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (now known as the University of Applied Arts Vienna), where he studied painting in the academic tradition. His mother Anna Klimt dreamed of being a musical performer, and his father Ernst Klimt the Elder was an engraver of gold. The second of seven children, Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, a town near Vienna in what was then Austria-Hungary.