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Books : Arts & Photography : Artists, A-Z : ( J-L ) : Klimt, Gustav
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The spellbinding story, part fairy tale, part suspense, of Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, one of the most emblematic portraits of its time; of the beautiful, seductive Viennese Jewish salon hostess who sat for it; the notorious artist who painted it; the now vanished turn-of-the-century Vienna that shaped it; and the strange twisted fate that befell it.
The Lady in Gold, considered an unforgettable masterpiece, one of the twentieth century’s most recognizable paintings, made headlines all over the world when Ronald Lauder bought it for $135 million a century after Klimt, the most famous Austrian painter of his time, completed the society portrait.
Anne-Marie O’Connor, writer for The Washington Post, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, tells the galvanizing story of the Lady in Gold, Adele Bloch-Bauer, a dazzling Viennese Jewish society figure; daughter of the head of one of the largest banks in the Hapsburg Empire, head of the Oriental Railway, whose Orient Express went from Berlin to Constantinople; wife of Ferdinand Bauer, sugar-beet baron.
The Bloch-Bauers were art patrons, and Adele herself was considered a rebel of fin de siècle Vienna (she wanted to be educated, a notion considered “degenerate” in a society that believed women being out in the world went against their feminine “nature”). The author describes how Adele inspired the portrait and how Klimt made more than a hundred sketches of her—simple pencil drawings on thin manila paper.
And O’Connor writes of Klimt himself, son of a failed gold engraver, shunned by arts bureaucrats, called an artistic heretic in his time, a genius in ours.
She writes of the Nazis confiscating the portrait of Adele from the Bloch-Bauers’ grand palais; of the Austrian government putting the painting on display, stripping Adele’s Jewish surname from it so that no clues to her identity (nor any hint of her Jewish origins) would be revealed. Nazi officials called the painting, The Lady in Gold and proudly exhibited it in Vienna’s Baroque Belvedere Palace, consecrated in the 1930s as a Nazi institution.
The author writes of the painting, inspired by the Byzantine mosaics Klimt had studied in Italy, with their exotic symbols and swirls, the subject an idol in a golden shrine.
We see how, sixty years after it was stolen by the Nazis, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer became the subject of a decade-long litigation between the Austrian government and the Bloch-Bauer heirs, how and why the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, and how the Court’s decision had profound ramifications in the art world.
A riveting social history; an illuminating and haunting look at turn-of-the-century Vienna; a brilliant portrait of the evolution of a painter; a masterfully told tale of suspense. And at the heart of it, the Lady in Gold—the shimmering painting, and its equally irresistible subject, the fate of each forever intertwined.
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The work of the great Austrian symbolist
Gustav Klimt's ornate art expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper middle-class society around the turn of the 20th century—a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure.
The ecstatic joy which Klimt and his contemporaries found—or hoped to find—in beauty was constantly overshadowed by death. And death therefore plays an important role in Klimt's art. Klimt's fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest erotic painters and graphic artists of his times. Particularly his drawings, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the sensual portrayal of women.
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Gustav Klimt’s decorative, seductive style, jewel-like colors, use of gold and pattern, and sensuous line, continue to captivate art lovers today. One of the masters of modern European painting, he helped found the popular Viennese Secession, or Art Nouveau, movement. This lushly illustrated volume explores his fascinating artistic career, covering Vienna at the time of Klimt’s creative peak. With more than 300 beautifully reproduced pictures, paintings, and photographs, it presents Klimt’s entire artistic production: posters for exhibitions, erotic drawings, and pictorial masterpieces such as The Kiss, Death and Life, and Tree of Life, along with countless portraits such as the famous Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
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Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), was one of the most influential artists at the end of the 19th century and was the founder of the Viennese Secession movement. He used the movement to express his criticism of traditional art, which was characterised by its opposition to change and the refusal to countenance a certain vision of Modernism. Klimt took his inspiration from the slow but unstoppable decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the multitude of cultures from which it was composed.ÂKlimt was an artist of great eroticism and sensuality and together with Kokoschka and Schiele, he is one of the great masters of Expressionism. This book brings together Klimt’s finest paintings, along with a text that demonstrates the extraordinary eclecticism of this great artist.
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Now in flexi-cover, this visually stunning collection of Klimt's landscape paintings brings to light a lesser-known aspect of the Viennese painter's uvre. While Klimt is largely revered for his opulent, symbol-laden portraits of the Viennese bourgeoisie, these works were just one aspect of his artistic expression. His landscapes represent an important facet of his career and are a valuable contribution to the school of European nature painting. For many years the artist travelled to the Austrian and Italian countryside during the summer, where he took advantage of the extraordinary light and spectacular hues to paint and sketch landscapes. Among the most exquisite of Klimt's landscapes are those in which he experimented with composition and style. Accompanied by scholarly essays, the images reproduced in this book comprise all extant landscapes from this brilliant artist, proving that his mastery extends beyond portraiture and revealing themes that appeared throughout his life's work.
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As the enfant terrible of the Viennese art scene, Gustav Klimt was acknowledged to be the painter of beautiful women, painting mythological goddesses and heroines as well as portraits of affluent Viennese ladies. Focusing solely on Klimt's relationship with his women and his canvases, "Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women" reveals both the artistic genius and the character of the great painter. Concentrating on the major women in Klimt's life and those who modelled for him, the chapters look into each of those important women and their relationship with Klimt. With splendid reproductions and informative text, this revised third edition of a best-selling title is now available in the popular flexi-cover.
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The finest drawings of the celebrated Austrian artist — mostly nudes and seminudes taken in part from rare portfolios of 1919 and 1964 — reveal the dynamics of the line in representing the human figure spontaneously and freely. Introduction.
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In June 2006, the Neue Galerie in New York purchased Gustav Klimt's 1907 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135 million. This deposed Picasso's Boy With a Pipe (sold May 2004 for $104 million) as the highest reported price ever paid for a piece of art sold at a public auction. However, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was a controversial figure in his time. Far from being acknowledged as the representative artist of his age, he was the target of violent criticism - his work sometimes being displayed behind a screen to avoid corrupting the sensibilities of the young. Today, Klimt's works are recognized as masterpieces and stand out as some of the most significant paintings ever to come out of Vienna. The Byzantine luxuriance of form, the vivid juxtaposition of colours and the rich symbolism, sensuality and eroticism of his work have made Klimt one of the most popular artists in the world. Arranged thematically, the 130 reproductions of Klimt's most important work are accompanied by Rachel Barnes' expert and insightful commentary on all aspects of the artist's life, influences and paintings - from the inspiration and provenance of each painting, to the technique used to create it and a list of exhibitions. Featuring some of the most iconic, important (and valuable) artworks of the late 19th/early 20th centuries, such as the Judith I, Portrait of Adele-Bloch-Bauer I and II, and The Kiss, this is
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The phenomenal draftsman Gustav Klimt occupies a unique place in modern art. His extant œuvre comprises some 250 paintings and more than 4,000 works on paper. The study of the human figure—above all female—lies at the heart of the artist’s activity as a draftsman, which he practiced assiduously. Through his study of the poses and gestures of his models, Klimt repeatedly examined the essence of particular psychological and existential states of being. In his constant quest for the ideal solution, Klimt often went beyond the preparation of his paintings, which, particularly after 1900, were dominated by the themes of Eros, Love, Life, and Death. His art cannot be understood without carefully considering the drawings, which are characterized by an unsurpassed mastery of line, in all the phases of his artistic development—from Historicism, through Stilkunst around 1900, the Golden Period, and up to his freer late work.
This lavishly illustrated publication accompanies the exhibition organized by the Albertina Museum in Vienna (March 13 to June 10, 2012) and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (July 3 to September 23, 2012) to mark the 150th anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s birth. In both venues, the emphasis will be placed on showing not only the variety of his draftsmanship, but also the centrality of drawing to Klimt’s artistic enterprise. Most of the works on display will come from the Albertina’s outstanding collection, one of the most extensive and representative groups of Klimt drawings in the world, complemented by select Austrian and international loans.
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This unique treasure of a book captures the sensual pleasure of an artist's sketchbook as well as the genius behind Klimt's vision of women. Throughout his career, Gustav Klimt completed hundreds of paintings and drawings of delicate beauty, many of them featuring the female form. Designed to imitate an artist's sketchbook, this exquisite volume focuses on the artist's most intimate erotic sketches and watercolours. The experience of viewing it awakens the senses, while affording the reader the guilty pleasure of leafing through an artist's most private visions. The stunning colour reproductions, embossed cover, and cloth spine make this a perfect gift for lovers of art and for lovers everywhere.
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Gustav Klimt's work brilliantly negotiates the borders between traditional and modern, figurative and non-figurative art. His subtly erotic portraits, richly patterned landscapes and enigmatic allegorical compositions are at once sensuous and refined, while his extravagant, ornamental style verges on abstraction. Obliged to go his own way when he was denied public commissions, Klimt became the leader of the modernists in Vienna, during the tragic final years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was perhaps the greatest portraitist of his age, a landscape painter of dazzling originality and above all the creator of extraordinary decorative schemes. 159 illus., 29 in color.
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This uniquely exhaustive survey of the leading artist of Viennese Art Nouveau style offers art lovers an irresistible opportunity: page after page of Klimt's paintings and frescoes along with illuminating commentary about his life and career. The author presents Klimt's entire painted oeuvre on an unprecedented scale. His commentary reflects the latest academic findings, such as Klimt's newly discovered church frescoes in Istria, in chapters featuring a wide-range of topics, including Klimt and women, the Viennese Secession, landscapes, portraits, and allegories. This volume's remarkable packaging reflects the magnificence of the work within. The book's large format allows close examination of the exquisite detail and luminescent quality of the work for which Klimt is renowned, making it a perfect gift or collector's item. Best of all, it provides viewers with an all-encompassing perspective on one of history's greatest painters.
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In this arresting volume the author discusses his paintings' frank eroticism and elaborate decorations against the background of Klimt's sensational life. She introduces readers to turn-of-the-century Vienna, a hotbed of cultural conflict and aesthetic awakening. She shows how Klimt's volatile relationship with the Viennese art world, run-ins with the law, and irrepressible sensuality shaped the artist's career. The author also considers Klimt's innovative techniques and novel approach to portraiture as well as his philosophy of painting. Finally the author reveals how a resurgent interest in Klimt's life is fuelling further debate about the roles of eroticism and fashion in the art world of today.
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Sixteen of the artist's most famous works in miniature format, among them Water Snakes II, The Kiss, Judith I, Country Garden, The Girlfriends, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Lady with Hat and Feather Boa, 9 others.
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The best of Klimt's drawings and watercolors, beautifully reproduced in full color.
There is no doubt about Gustav Klimt's greatness as a draftsman. Remarkable above all is the intensely sensual mood that he establishes in his limpid, fluid drawings and watercolors: the pencil or crayon line with which his subjects are described explores and caresses as though the act of drawing was itself a seduction. Klimt's drawings are often highly erotic and explicit, many to such an extent that they have rarely been reproduced. This has made for an unbalanced representation of his work as a draftsman, and a comprehensive survey of his graphic output is long overdue.
Rainer Metzger, a noted art historian, has brought together hundreds of Klimt's drawings and watercolors in a way that enriches our knowledge of the artist and enhances the visual impact of his oeuvre. Klimt's drawings and studies, and his elegantly direct and dangerously intoxicating preparatory sketches, reveal the underlying impetus for and structure of his elaborate canvases. 307 color illustrations.
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A rich survey of the life and work of one of the most intriguing artists of the twentieth century.
Published in conjunction with an exciting exhibition at the Neue Galerie New York, opening in autumn 2007, this beautifully produced book features more than one hundred color plates in a generous layout that allows close viewing of the artist's paintings and drawings. Admirers of Klimt will discover fascinating essays by leading scholars, many containing new research and fresh insights. The essays' subjects include Klimt's earliest patrons; his studios; the role of photography in his erotic work; profiles of the most important women in the artist's life; his relationship with Gustav Mahler and Auguste Rodin; his never-before-published 1917 notebook; and an interview by Neue Galerie director Renée Price with Maria Altmann, heir to the five paintings stolen by the Nazis that were recently returned to her by the Austrian government. Perfect for casual perusing or serious study, this lavish exploration of Klimt's life and art, and the influence of Klimt on popular culture, is certain to find a wide audience.
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Paintings by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) are featured here in 25 large reproductions, many enriched with gold and silver. Every painting is accompanied by a brief commentary examining its place in the artist's development, the circumstances of the commission, and the role of the subject in Klimt's personal world in turn-of-the-century Vienna.
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Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) expressed a dedication to the theme of "woman" throughout his life -- in his early historical paintings, in allegorical depictions and erotic drawings, and in classic large female portraits. At the turn of the century, Klimt created a completely new type of picture with his sumptuously ornamented female portraits.This gorgeously illustrated book offers for the first time a survey of Klimt's approach to the female form. The volume includes a great number of his works depicting women, and it examines how fundamental changes in the social structure at the turn of the century led to new positions for women on both ideological and cultural levels. The contributors to the book discuss such topics as Vienna's cultural role in 1900, the importance of the affluent bourgeoisie, patronage, and the myth of "Whole Art" (Gesamtkunstwerk). The book also illuminates Klimt's idiosyncratic treatment of the female in relation to her European background and sets his work against various interpretations of this theme in key works by contemporary artists including Ferdinand Hodler, Fernand Khnopff, Oskar Kokoschka, Hans Makart, Edouard Manet, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele.
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Gustav Klimt began his life as a successful painter of murals and as a designer of pageants in the age of Emperor Franz Joseph in Austria. He was a key member of the Viennese Succession movement who sought a more modern style of painting. He believed that human suffering could only be reviled through art and love. This ideal is enshrined in many of his finest works, giving an insight into his productive, if turbulent, life.
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An unparalleled work of Klimt scholarship that revisits his work in the context of his contemporaries
When a painting by Gustav Klimt was sold at auction in 2006 for a reported 135 million dollars, Klimt fervor reached a pitch that many observers saw as a climax and perhaps even as a swan song. Not for the first time, they were wrong: long after that headline sale, Klimt remains very much a focus of attention. The countless events being held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth make a clear statement to this effect. Not that it takes such a special occasion for the press and the public to start talking about Klimt. More than two hundred articles about the artist appeared online in August 2011 alone, in comparison with barely seventy on Rembrandt within the same period. This media publicity set editor Tobias G. Natter thinking about the value of compiling the present book. During his lifetime, Klimt was a controversial star whose works made passions run high; he stood for Modernism but he also embodied tradition. His pictures polarized and divided the art-loving world. Journalists and general public alike were split over the question: For or against Klimt?
The present publication therefore places particular emphasis upon the voices of Klimt’s contemporaries via a series of essays examining reactions to his work throughout his career. Subjects range from Klimt’s portrayal of women to his adoption of landscape painting in the second half of his life. The cliché that Gustav Klimt was a man of few words who rarely put pen to paper is vehemently dispelled: no less than 231 letters, cards, writings and other documents—all known Klimt correspondence—are included in this monograph. This wealth of archival material, assembled here for the first time on such a scale, represents a major contribution to Klimt scholarship.
Defining features of this edition:- catalog of Klimt's complete paintings
- all known letter correspondence
Contributing authors: Evelyn Benesch, Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Rainald Franz, Christoph Grunenberg, Hansjörg Krug, Susanna Partsch, and Angelina Pötschner