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World of Art
Klimt
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.
Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
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About the author
Frank Whitford
41 books4 followersBorn Francis Peter Whitford in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, on 11 August 1941, the son of Peter Whitford and his wife Katherine Ellen (nee Rowe). He was educated at Peter Symonds School in Winchester and attended Wadham College, Oxford, graduating in 1963 with a third-class honours in English language and literature because he preferred drawing to studying. A self-taught artist, he designed posters and worked as an actor in student films and illustrator for student magazines.
He subsequently studied German art at the Courtauld Institute, earning an academic diploma in the history of art in 1965. He worked as a cartoonist and illustrator on the Sunday Mirror in 1965-66 before switching to drawing pocket cartoons for the Evening Standard in 1966-67. Richard J. Evans, in his obituary for The Guardian (23 January 2014), quotes Whitford as saying: "Almost daily for four years or so, I churned out a pocket cartoon, trying to be funny and politically astute at the same time. I was rarely if ever successful, which explains why my career was so short, only briefly extended by changing papers and editors in midstream."
Whitford did not consider himself a particularly good cartoonist, avoiding drawing feet, which he found particularly tricky, whenever possible. His cartoons covered many areas of British political life at a time when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and some of the major events affecting the UK were centred on apartheid South Africa and the independence of Southern Rhodesia, but he felt that foreign artists like Vicky (Victor Weisz) were able to better recognise the absurdities of British politics.
With the aid of a Ford Foundation scholarship, Whitford attended the Free University of Berlin, graduating with a degree in art history in 1969. The next year he began lecturing on the history of art at University College London before becoming a senior lecturer at Homerton College, Cambridge, in 1974. When the art history department was closed in 1986, Whitford began freelancing and tutored history of art at the Royal College of Art; he was awarded a higher doctorate at the RCA in 1989.
He had continued to contribute cartoons – as Rausch – to the Sunday Mirror in the 1970s, but it was as a an art critic with the Sunday Times and Cambridge Evening News that he returned to newspapers in 1991. Ge was already established as a writer, having worked as a contributing editor to Studio International between 1964 and 1973, and as the author of books on Kandinsky (London, Hamlyn, 1967 [1968]), Expressionism (London, Hamlyn, 1970), Japanese Prints and Western Painters (London, Studio Vista, 1977), Egon Schiele (London, Thames & Hudson, 1981), Bauhaus (London, Thames & Hudson, 1984), George Grosz: The Day of Reckoning (London, Allison & Busby, 1984), Love Above All (London, Allison & Busby, 1985), Oskar Kokoschka: A life (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986), Expressionist Portraits (London, Thames & Hudson, 1987), Trog: Forty graphic years: The art of Wally Fawkes (London, Fourth Estate, 1987), Understanding Abstract Art (London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1987), Gustav Klimt (London, Thames & Hudson, 1990), Bauhaus: Masters and Students by Themselves (London, Conran Octopus, 1992), The Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, watercolours and prints, 1912-1930 (New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1997), Kandinsky: Watercolours and other works on paper (London, Thames & Hudson, 1999), as well as numerous introductions for exhibitions.
Whitford also appeared as the broadcaster, appearing as a team captain on the Channel 4 gameshow Gallery in the 1980s, presenting two series about cartoonists on Radio 4 in the early 1990s and writing and presenting the video documentary Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century (1994).
He was awarded the federal cross of the Order of Merit in Germany in 2002.
Whitford is survived by his wife, Cecilia (Cici) Dresser, a specialist in Japanese art who worked in the Cambridge University Library, whom he m
He subsequently studied German art at the Courtauld Institute, earning an academic diploma in the history of art in 1965. He worked as a cartoonist and illustrator on the Sunday Mirror in 1965-66 before switching to drawing pocket cartoons for the Evening Standard in 1966-67. Richard J. Evans, in his obituary for The Guardian (23 January 2014), quotes Whitford as saying: "Almost daily for four years or so, I churned out a pocket cartoon, trying to be funny and politically astute at the same time. I was rarely if ever successful, which explains why my career was so short, only briefly extended by changing papers and editors in midstream."
Whitford did not consider himself a particularly good cartoonist, avoiding drawing feet, which he found particularly tricky, whenever possible. His cartoons covered many areas of British political life at a time when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister and some of the major events affecting the UK were centred on apartheid South Africa and the independence of Southern Rhodesia, but he felt that foreign artists like Vicky (Victor Weisz) were able to better recognise the absurdities of British politics.
With the aid of a Ford Foundation scholarship, Whitford attended the Free University of Berlin, graduating with a degree in art history in 1969. The next year he began lecturing on the history of art at University College London before becoming a senior lecturer at Homerton College, Cambridge, in 1974. When the art history department was closed in 1986, Whitford began freelancing and tutored history of art at the Royal College of Art; he was awarded a higher doctorate at the RCA in 1989.
He had continued to contribute cartoons – as Rausch – to the Sunday Mirror in the 1970s, but it was as a an art critic with the Sunday Times and Cambridge Evening News that he returned to newspapers in 1991. Ge was already established as a writer, having worked as a contributing editor to Studio International between 1964 and 1973, and as the author of books on Kandinsky (London, Hamlyn, 1967 [1968]), Expressionism (London, Hamlyn, 1970), Japanese Prints and Western Painters (London, Studio Vista, 1977), Egon Schiele (London, Thames & Hudson, 1981), Bauhaus (London, Thames & Hudson, 1984), George Grosz: The Day of Reckoning (London, Allison & Busby, 1984), Love Above All (London, Allison & Busby, 1985), Oskar Kokoschka: A life (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986), Expressionist Portraits (London, Thames & Hudson, 1987), Trog: Forty graphic years: The art of Wally Fawkes (London, Fourth Estate, 1987), Understanding Abstract Art (London, Barrie & Jenkins, 1987), Gustav Klimt (London, Thames & Hudson, 1990), Bauhaus: Masters and Students by Themselves (London, Conran Octopus, 1992), The Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, watercolours and prints, 1912-1930 (New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1997), Kandinsky: Watercolours and other works on paper (London, Thames & Hudson, 1999), as well as numerous introductions for exhibitions.
Whitford also appeared as the broadcaster, appearing as a team captain on the Channel 4 gameshow Gallery in the 1980s, presenting two series about cartoonists on Radio 4 in the early 1990s and writing and presenting the video documentary Bauhaus: The Face of the 20th Century (1994).
He was awarded the federal cross of the Order of Merit in Germany in 2002.
Whitford is survived by his wife, Cecilia (Cici) Dresser, a specialist in Japanese art who worked in the Cambridge University Library, whom he m
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 11, 2020
I loved this book. I think the historical and sociocultural analysis of fin-de-siècle Vienna was really well done and gave me a better understanding of Klimt's work. We don't know much about his private life, but the photos and anecdotes included in the book were fascinating. What a guy he was. Docked one star because half of the pictures were in black and white.
April 3, 2025
Whitford nicely highlights Klimt’s expressionism, arts and crafts ethos, & debt to oriental art. But Klimt’s art doesn’t appeal to me.
October 11, 2023
Opens well; straight up speculation on the author's sexual relations with a wealthy industrialist's wife who sat for a portrait the specification, going off nothing more than the paintings themselves. This illustrates Whitford's principal challenge: writing about an artist who wrote few letters and had little to say beyond the work itself. The solution, which I very much appreciated, involves describing the Vienna scene klimt lived and worked in.
November 3, 2024
This was a fabulous book! Great mix of Vienna culture, Klimt’s personal life (of what we know of it), and his trajectory in painting. Well organized as each chapter focuses on a different aspect of his painting (portraits, landscapes, the nude etc). Also appreciated the author pointing out how Klimt differs (but in some ways is similar) to modern painting at the time. As Klimt is not often taught, I would def give this a read to learn more. Also lots of pictures of his paintings in the book to help visualize the authors pictorial analysis.
October 1, 2025
rather enjoyed this little book! I loved the way the chapters were structured and the analysis was easy to follow and included a good mix of sociocultural influences and klimt’s personal experiences as well as tying in broader historical and artistic themes in vienna. i would’ve enjoyed if all the pictures were in colour as i had to look up quite a few ..
nevertheless quite wonderful!
nevertheless quite wonderful!
December 9, 2008
Having viewed Klimt's masterpiece portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer at the Neue Gallerie New York last year, I enjoyed learning about his life in Vienna and would love to visit someday.
May 13, 2018
Great book on a great artist. Do wish half of the pictures weren't in black and white
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews