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Klimt
Apostle of the beauty of the feminine form, Klimt displays in his work the profound creativity and anxiety brought on by the end of one century and the beginning of another. Special care has been taken with the color illustration to reproduce the artist's uniquely sumptuous palette.
- GenresArtArt Design
32 pages, Paperback
First published September 27, 1975
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About the author
Gustav Klimt
186 books36 followersGustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna, the second of seven children — three boys and four girls. All three sons displayed artistic talent early on. His father, Ernst Klimt, formerly from Bohemia, was a gold engraver. Ernst married Anna Klimt (née Finster), whose unrealized ambition was to be a musical performer. Klimt lived in poverty for most of his childhood, as work was scarce and economic advancement was difficult for immigrants.
In 1876, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied until 1883, and received training as an architectural painter. He revered the foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart. Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend Franz Matsch began working together; by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team they called the "Company of Artists", and helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße including a successful series of "Allegories and Emblems".
In 1888, Klimt received the Golden order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna. In 1892 both Klimt's father and brother Ernst died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies affected his artistic vision as well, and soon he would veer toward a new personal style. In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who, notwithstanding the artist's relationships with other women, was to be his companion until the end of his life. Whether his relationship with Flöge was sexual or not is debated, but during that period Klimt fathered at least 14 children.
--Wikipedia
In 1876, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied until 1883, and received training as an architectural painter. He revered the foremost history painter of the time, Hans Makart. Klimt readily accepted the principles of a conservative training; his early work may be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother Ernst, who, like his father, would become an engraver, also enrolled in the school. The two brothers and their friend Franz Matsch began working together; by 1880 they had received numerous commissions as a team they called the "Company of Artists", and helped their teacher in painting murals in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstraße including a successful series of "Allegories and Emblems".
In 1888, Klimt received the Golden order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for his contributions to murals painted in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the University of Munich and the University of Vienna. In 1892 both Klimt's father and brother Ernst died, and he had to assume financial responsibility for his father's and brother's families. The tragedies affected his artistic vision as well, and soon he would veer toward a new personal style. In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who, notwithstanding the artist's relationships with other women, was to be his companion until the end of his life. Whether his relationship with Flöge was sexual or not is debated, but during that period Klimt fathered at least 14 children.
--Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 2, 2017
DANAE 1907-08
77x83cm 30x33in
This selection of paintings by Gustav Klimt is called a "Poster Book". The format is large format, 15 1/4" by 11 3/8".
It contains 22 full-page reproductions of Klimt's paintings. The reverse side of each reproduction is blank. The book is designed to allow easy removal of the reproductions for framing and/or wall hanging.
The book also contains three additional reproductions (not full page), a short introductory essay by Ina Stegen, and a list of principal dates in Klimt's life.
The paper quality is high, and the color reproduction seems top-notch. The paintings are framed beautifully on the 15x11 pages, in most cases covering either the entire width or length of the page.
There is no text on the reproduction pages. Instead the name, date, size, and location of each painting is given in a List of Plates in the front. The cover illustration (Danae) is one of the posters, as is the illustration used on the back cover (Farm Garden with Sun Flowers).
Gustav Klimt 1862-1918
looking like he could have stepped out of one of his paintings, no?
Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.
Author/editor Ina Stegen, in her introduction to this book, sets the stage for the years of Klimt’s best known output.
The sensuous flowing lines and decorative refinement, the literary symbolism and erotic allusions of Art Nouveau dominated the European art scene of the years around 1900. In Vienna the new style was supported by a group of artists who in 1897 decided to leave the Viennese artist association and constitue a more progressive group, the “Seccession”. Gustav Klimt became their president and artistic leader.
Stegen writes that it was only in this same year that Klimt began to evolve the style of painting for which he is famous, when he began work on three ceiling paintings for the University of Vienna. With these paintings he became “the herald of a new style”. Unfortunately for the European art world (and for the human spirit, I might add) these paintings were never displayed at the University, being deemed pornographic and characterized by “perverted excess”. Two of them were exhibited in Paris before being presented to the University; all three traveled a tragic and convoluted path, ending in May 1945 when they were destroyed by retreating SS forces. (See here, and especially the “Outcome and destruction” section.)
Be prepared to weep when you behold what was lost, even in the colorless photographs that were taken of them:Philosophy , Medicine and Jurisprudence .
Here’s a color detail of the Medicine painting. (I couldn't find sizes for these paintings, but as they were commissioned for ceiling display, they must have been huge.)
Stegen describes Klimt’s “highly personal style:
… which rejected traditional illusionist painting as well as the “light-realism” of the Impressionists. Increasingly, his compositions are oriented towards the picture plane, background and foreground are linked together by ornamental patterns, between which gently modeled areas of impressionistic texture set an accent of added aesthetic refinement. The contrast of richly detailed surfaces and large open spaces recalls the impact of Japanese woodcuts on Art Nouveau painting in general.Stegen notes that in some of the later paintings Klimt pushed this style to its limits, producing works in which “the picture content has become completely subordinate to the overall concept of decoration.” An example:
She goes on,
That Klimt was aware of this inherent danger is documented by the fact that he did not continue in this extreme formalization. The paintings of his last decade reflect a much greater spontaneity, a freer painterly treatment which fills his ornaments with life and his marvelous landscapes with a vibrant sense of light and energy.Following are some of my favorite Klimt paintings, all of which are reproduced in this poster book.
EMILIE FLOGE 1902
181x84cm 71x33in
THREE AGES OF WOMEN 1905
180x180cm 71x71in
FRITZA RIEDLER 1906
153x133cm 60x52in
THE KISS 1907-08
180x180cm 71x71in
DEATH AND LIFE before 1911, revised 1915
178x198cm 70x78in
THE WOMEN FRIENDS 1916-17
90x99cm 35x39in (destroyed by fire in 1945)
May 14, 2012
I libri della collana Quadrifolio sono frutto di una scelta radicale che, come tale, non può che incontrare la mia simpatia.
Parte testuale sostanzialmente assente, se non per un paio di pagine introduttive; riproduzioni di ottima qualità; grande formato (circa 25 x 28 cm), a cui si aggiunge la caratteristica peculiare di questa serie: i libri sono impaginati con ante apribili, permettendo di raddoppiare o perfino quadruplicare la superficie disponibile per ogni singola opera. Una sorta di pop-up per adulti, che avranno la sensazione di entrare nei quadri, di potersi muovere a proprio agio dentro i capolavori dell'arte. E questo è particolarmente vero nel caso di Gustav Klimt, che fece del decorativismo e del dettaglio prezioso una costante della sua produzione.
È così possibile, finalmente, ammirare le opere giovanili e storicistiche in ogni loro minuto particolare; immergersi nei decorativismi floreali della maturità, nelle ampie campiture dorate del periodo della Secessione; perdersi nei paesaggi naturali, simili sotto molti aspetti alle ninfee di Monet; attardarsi sui cromatismi quasi fauve delle opere tarde. E soprattutto è possibile godere del Fregio di Beethoven nella sua interezza: l'opera, realizzata nel 1902 in occasione dell'inaugurazione del Palazzo della Secessione a Vienna, viene solitamente riprodotta a frammenti a causa del formato (2,2 m d'altezza, per più di trenta metri di lunghezza complessiva). La soluzione adottata qui è tanto semplice quanto spregiudicata: tre+tre ante apribili orizzontalmente, per un totale di un metro e mezzo (!) di carta per ciascuna delle tre sezioni del fregio.
Non vorrei suonare troppo borghese, ma la mia sensazione è che un progetto editoriale del genere faccia sentire un po' meno la nostalgia dell'aura nella riproduzione dell'opera d'arte.
La sequenza è organizzata in ordine grosso modo (anche se non rigorosamente) cronologico, seguendo l'evoluzione dello stile di Klimt lungo trent'anni di carriera.
Cercavo un libro con cui prepararmi alla mostra klimtiana del museo Correr di Venezia: http://www.mostraklimt.it/ (invero piuttosto piccola; ma questo è un altro discorso), e quand'ho visto questo volume non ho avuti dubbi.
Parte testuale sostanzialmente assente, se non per un paio di pagine introduttive; riproduzioni di ottima qualità; grande formato (circa 25 x 28 cm), a cui si aggiunge la caratteristica peculiare di questa serie: i libri sono impaginati con ante apribili, permettendo di raddoppiare o perfino quadruplicare la superficie disponibile per ogni singola opera. Una sorta di pop-up per adulti, che avranno la sensazione di entrare nei quadri, di potersi muovere a proprio agio dentro i capolavori dell'arte. E questo è particolarmente vero nel caso di Gustav Klimt, che fece del decorativismo e del dettaglio prezioso una costante della sua produzione.
È così possibile, finalmente, ammirare le opere giovanili e storicistiche in ogni loro minuto particolare; immergersi nei decorativismi floreali della maturità, nelle ampie campiture dorate del periodo della Secessione; perdersi nei paesaggi naturali, simili sotto molti aspetti alle ninfee di Monet; attardarsi sui cromatismi quasi fauve delle opere tarde. E soprattutto è possibile godere del Fregio di Beethoven nella sua interezza: l'opera, realizzata nel 1902 in occasione dell'inaugurazione del Palazzo della Secessione a Vienna, viene solitamente riprodotta a frammenti a causa del formato (2,2 m d'altezza, per più di trenta metri di lunghezza complessiva). La soluzione adottata qui è tanto semplice quanto spregiudicata: tre+tre ante apribili orizzontalmente, per un totale di un metro e mezzo (!) di carta per ciascuna delle tre sezioni del fregio.
Non vorrei suonare troppo borghese, ma la mia sensazione è che un progetto editoriale del genere faccia sentire un po' meno la nostalgia dell'aura nella riproduzione dell'opera d'arte.
La sequenza è organizzata in ordine grosso modo (anche se non rigorosamente) cronologico, seguendo l'evoluzione dello stile di Klimt lungo trent'anni di carriera.
Cercavo un libro con cui prepararmi alla mostra klimtiana del museo Correr di Venezia: http://www.mostraklimt.it/ (invero piuttosto piccola; ma questo è un altro discorso), e quand'ho visto questo volume non ho avuti dubbi.
Want to read
September 12, 2008God, I love Klimt's women.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews