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Gustav Klimt Biography
Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918) |
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Klimt's highly decorative, erotic female figures were influenced by an Greek art, Byzantine mosaics, late-medieval painting, the woodcuts of Albrecht Durer, photography and the Symbolist art of Max Klinger. As a cofounder of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists and architects who formed their own exhibition society and denounce the classical academic training of the time. His work embodied the high-keyed erotic, psychological and aesthetic preoccupations of fin-de-siecle Viennese intellectuals . Born in Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna, Klimt's interest in art was nurtured by his father, an engraver. His formal training began at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna and later he worked as an artist-decorator in association with his brother. The primal forces of sexuality, regeneration, love and death form the dominant themes of Klimt's best known art work. Beautifully rendered figures float dreamlike in space. wrapped in an abstracted mosaic robe that veils graceful contours. The rhythmic flowing line and organic form of Klimt's unparalleled paintings became a powerful influence on the Art Nouveau movement. |
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