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Essential Klimt
Essential Klimt is full of beautiful images and defines his love of line,texture and form. The text by Laura Payne gives a close look into the soul of the artist,Gustav Klimt.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 8, 2019
Sorry Taschen, but you've just been dethroned from being the publisher of my favourite book about Gustav Klimt's artwork. Sure, you outweigh this book by 20-odd pounds (you're tome is by far the weightiest) and you may be more complete (this is only a selection), but the presentation here is by far the most approachable. The author pairs each chosen art piece with a maximum one-page of text, which gives her just enough room to explore some of the painting's major themes without overwhelming the reader. In some cases she also includes an inset image for quick comparison, making her discussion that much more seamless as readers don't hvae to flip throughout the book to find referenced works (a serious annoyance of mine in pretty much every single art book. Even weaving in some alrger comparisons throughout Klimt's oeuvre, the author manages to keep her text concise and readable - a laudable achievement considering the typical rambling that academia encourages and her obvious passion for her subject matter. Besides the simple and accessible layout that initially won me over, it may be her clear lack of boring "professionalism" that kept me engaged with the text. Too many art historians strive to remain aloof from their subject matter in an effort to retain their professionalism, but this often results in dry, unengaging narrative. We as readers come here to learn, but we also come as fans who want to be inspired, so having a more personal tone really sets Payne apart, as we can see and be encouraged by her personal interest in Klimt's work. It almost astrounds me that poeple can be dispassionate about Klimt's work in particular, because so much of his subject matter deals with passion and inspiration, resulting in riotous works of art.
May 28, 2023
This was my free book that I got as part of a "Buy 3 Get 1 Free" deal; and I'm pretty happy to have it. I know there are other bigger and fancier Klimt books out there (this one is 8½ x 11½), and smaller, cheaper ones too. This book is solidly in the middle range in terms of size and quality, but that is perfectly adequate for us. It's not as though my wife and I are art teachers or anything; we just like to have a lot of art books around so we can look up this or that painting if it is mentioned in a book one of us is reading, simply page through them for enjoyment, or whatever. Someday, perhaps, we may have the money to get a couple of nice prints of paintings we particularly like, but at the moment the only ones we have are the little print of Picasso's 'The Old Guitarist', given to me by my brother-in-law for Christmas several years ago, which hangs in my library, and the nice, big Warhol print ('Marilyn Monroe') which was given to me as a present by a lady-friend many years ago. For the most part, for now, the books will have to suffice.
Happily, my wife's taste in art overlaps considerably with my own, which tends to make things much easier. In addition to Klimt and the other two mentioned above, we both also love the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edward Hopper, Louis Wain, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Giorgio de Chirico and Salvador Dalí. I also tend to like a lot of more-or-less "mitteleuropaïsch" artists like Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Egon Schiele (Gustav Klimt, obviously, fits in this group quite well, though in some ways his vision was sui generis). I have recently become aware of the work of Xenia Hausner (daughter of the surrealist painter Rudolf Hausner), with whose work I'm quite impressed- I think she is a far greater artist than her father, just for starters, and certainly one of the greatest living painters at the present time. It's actually quite amusing, writing this stuff down; neither of us is what anyone would think of as an art expert, or, really, even particularly interested in art. Looking at the list I typed out above, however, I think the common theme would have to be that all these painters made skillful, striking and unexpected use of colour in their work; even Hopper, many of whose paintings are in somewhat muted tones, could make absolutely spectacular use of vivid colour when he felt so inclined. One of the reasons this strikes me as funny is that both my wife and myself, together and separately, have long been notorious in our social circle for allegedly only dressing in black and white- some people have even suggested that we might have some sort of bizarre chiaroscuro fixation (they point to the fact that we prefer to work with black & white film when photographing as further evidence). That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course- we both used to wear more colourful clothes when we were younger. It's mostly the fact that we simply refuse to wear what we consider to be "senior citizen clothes", and it's easier to look good as an older person if you're only working with two or three colours. It's really funny to listen to people calling me "monochromatic man" when they think I can't hear them, though, hahaha!!!
This book is a decent compromise if you want to get fairly high quality reproductions of most of Klimt's major works, but don't want to spend that much money. It is a solid, well-made hardcover with heavy, good quality paper and a nice dust-jacket. As I said, mine was actually free, but I've seen books very much like this sell brand new for anywhere between US$7.99 and $24.99, so it presumably wouldn't have been that expensive anyway.
Happily, my wife's taste in art overlaps considerably with my own, which tends to make things much easier. In addition to Klimt and the other two mentioned above, we both also love the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edward Hopper, Louis Wain, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Henri Rousseau, Giorgio de Chirico and Salvador Dalí. I also tend to like a lot of more-or-less "mitteleuropaïsch" artists like Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Egon Schiele (Gustav Klimt, obviously, fits in this group quite well, though in some ways his vision was sui generis). I have recently become aware of the work of Xenia Hausner (daughter of the surrealist painter Rudolf Hausner), with whose work I'm quite impressed- I think she is a far greater artist than her father, just for starters, and certainly one of the greatest living painters at the present time. It's actually quite amusing, writing this stuff down; neither of us is what anyone would think of as an art expert, or, really, even particularly interested in art. Looking at the list I typed out above, however, I think the common theme would have to be that all these painters made skillful, striking and unexpected use of colour in their work; even Hopper, many of whose paintings are in somewhat muted tones, could make absolutely spectacular use of vivid colour when he felt so inclined. One of the reasons this strikes me as funny is that both my wife and myself, together and separately, have long been notorious in our social circle for allegedly only dressing in black and white- some people have even suggested that we might have some sort of bizarre chiaroscuro fixation (they point to the fact that we prefer to work with black & white film when photographing as further evidence). That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course- we both used to wear more colourful clothes when we were younger. It's mostly the fact that we simply refuse to wear what we consider to be "senior citizen clothes", and it's easier to look good as an older person if you're only working with two or three colours. It's really funny to listen to people calling me "monochromatic man" when they think I can't hear them, though, hahaha!!!
This book is a decent compromise if you want to get fairly high quality reproductions of most of Klimt's major works, but don't want to spend that much money. It is a solid, well-made hardcover with heavy, good quality paper and a nice dust-jacket. As I said, mine was actually free, but I've seen books very much like this sell brand new for anywhere between US$7.99 and $24.99, so it presumably wouldn't have been that expensive anyway.
February 17, 2020
Not much about Klimt, but a great concentration of his work. Each page is devoted to his work and compares the work to sketches and previous work. Remarkable.
October 14, 2017
Looks at Klimt's life and art. The writing isn't the best, so only recommended for serious Klimt lovers.
November 15, 2018
Es una buena colección de pinturas pero los textos son repetitivos, desordenados y te dicen qué debes de sentir y porque en lugar de dar datos o hacer un análisis
June 8, 2024
#1 gustav fan
May 31, 2007
I prefer Gustav Klimt over pretty much any other 'classic' painter I've ever seen. This book collects many of his works in one volume, including his early ink works. A fair amount of bibliographical information is also included. "Judith II" is my favourite work of his, and it's included in this book. He rendered several nudes, and some of his work may be considered as inappropriate for children by prudes.
TO SUM UP: HIGHLY recommended for fine art fans.
TO SUM UP: HIGHLY recommended for fine art fans.
June 20, 2016
Enjoyed very much. Loved how they gave in-depth interpretations of his works. Wonderful use of symbols. Never knew that his father's work with metals influenced is use of gold in so many of his paintings. It was sad to hear that so many of this works were lost during nazi burnings. With an artist who embraces color so vividly, the Back and White pictures that have survived just don't do the originals justice. One day I hope to see his works in vienna.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews