Gustav Klimt. Patrick Bade

Egyptian Art II, 1890–1891.

      Oil on plaster, 230 × 80 cm.

      Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

      Egyptian Art I (Young Girl with Horus), 1890–1891.

      Oil on plaster, 230 × 230.

      Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

      Portrait of a Woman (possibly Mrs. Heymann), c. 1894.

      Oil on wood, 39 × 23 cm.

      Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

      Some things will be made impossible, such as the atrocity that did not allow someone like Emil Jakob Schindler, two years before his death, at the height of his brilliance, to exhibit the 28 paintings he wished to show to the world but instead allowed him to show only 14 paintings, which were, moreover, displayed apart from each other, completely out of context. If Schindler was still alive today he would surely go to the Wollzeile to display his art.

      The fire that has been ignited by this movement needs to be maintained, just like fuelling a fireplace; for this very reason the exhibition center is being planned and built. From this new and free house of artists maybe even the Academy can be won over and a modern gallery can be established, a Viennese Luxembourg.[6] The whole profit of future exhibitions is going to be invested into such a modern gallery; the gallery will only blossom out of a well-nurtured stem. The new house is going be a focal point and a staging area for the still scattered Austrian forces and even the province will be fed artistically out of this rich larder. There will be “elite-exhibitions” in every city so that even those that have been disinherited of their art appreciation can feel part of a beautiful body; the body of art. There is much blessing to impart. There even shall be art for the people. If, for example, a young law student asks the administration of the gallery for free entry, the request should be considered and a way found to realize the plea, so that the need for art is satisfied. Ultimately we want these young people to, God willing, buy the works from our painting and sculpting progeny.[7]

      It is a pleasant phenomenon that this particular movement combines passion with reason. Without dreaming about a utopian future for their art collective and without trumpets or fireworks these young people of the Vereinigung have approached the challenge pragmatically. Rich patrons of the art have been admitted into confidence so that the authorities of Vienna and the urban expansion office could see the importance of this project early on. Everything that was needed could be purchased cheaply by those bold men. Not often has the determination of a few prepared the ground for artistic creation. Everyone who supported this project in even the littlest measure deserves the praise of the public. The project has progressed even so far that the construction plan for the new exhibition center should be finished soon. On the plot of land spanning 1200 square metres, that has been granted by the council, a true art palace of 640 square metres with a will rise, surrounded by an aesthetically pleasing recreation area. The building is planned as a public building with a raised ground floor with a skylight and now windows; the outer walls will be artfully decorated with frescos so that Vienna not even gets a center of art but also a structural ornament. The financial means for the execution and maintenance of the project have been secured and now the artists are hoping to be able to open the doors of their new home soon.

      “May visionary friends of the arts,” the V.b.K.Ö says in their message, “may first and foremost those citizens of Vienna who are enthusiastic about art, honour our endeavours and support them as best they can. May patrons and artists strive together to make Vienna into what it is destined to be: Vienna, City of Art. (27 March 1897).”

      After the Rain, 1899.

      Oil on canvas, 80 × 40 cm.

      Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

      Water Sprites (Silver Fish), 1899.

      Oil on canvas, 82 × 52 cm.

      Kunstsammlung Bank Austria AG, Vienna.

      His Life

      “I am not interested in myself as a subject for painting, but in others, particularly women…”

      Tree of Life (detail), c.1905–1909.

      Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna.

      Beautiful, sensuous, and, above all, erotic, Gustav Klimt’s paintings speak of a world of opulence and leisure, which seems eons away from the harsh, post-modern environment we live in now. The subjects he treats – allegories, portraits, landscapes and erotic figures – contain virtually no reference to external events, but strive rather to create a world where beauty, above everything else, is dominant.

      His use of colour and pattern, profoundly influenced by the art of Japan, ancient Egypt, and Byzantine Ravenna, the flat, two-dimensional perspective of his paintings, and the frequently stylized quality of his images form an œuvre imbued with a profound sensuality and one where the figure of woman, above all, reigns supreme.

      Beginnings

      Klimt’s very first works brought him success at an unusually early age. He came from a poor family where his father, a goldsmith and engraver, could scarcely support his wife and family of seven children. Gustav, born in 1862, obtained a state grant to study at the Kunstgewerbeschule (the Vienna School of Art) at the age of fourteen. His talents as a draughtsman and painter were quickly noticed, and in 1879 he formed the Künstlerkompagnie (Artists’ Company) with his brother Ernst and another student, Franz Matsch.

      The latter part of the nineteenth century was a period of great architectural activity in Vienna. In 1857, the Emperor Franz Joseph had ordered the destruction of the fortifications that had surrounded the medieval city centre. The Ringstrasse was the result, a budding new district with magnificent buildings and beautiful parks, all paid for by public expenses. This meant therefore, that the young Klimt and his partners had ample opportunities to show their talents and they received early commissions to contribute to the decorations for the pageant organized to celebrate the silver wedding of the Emperor Franz Joseph and the Empress Elisabeth. In the following year, they were commissioned to produce a ceiling painting for the thermal baths in Carlsbad. Other public commissions soon followed.

      When one examines his early works, such as Fable, Idyll, or indeed one of Klimt’s earliest drawings, Male Nude Walking Facing Right, it is clear that he is a painter of great skill and promise, but remains entirely within the accepted contemporary norms in his depiction of academic and allegorical subjects. The women depicted in Fable and Idyll are plump, adroitly draped in plain clothing, their hair smoothly pulled back behind the neck. Neither would look out of place in the eighteenth or even seventeenth century. Their sensuality is matronly, motherly, their nudity decorous rather than exciting.

      In the past, pubic hair had – if this part of the body was revealed at all – traditionally been glossed over into a smooth and non-threatening ‘v’ reminiscent of modern-day children’s dolls. Many early medieval or Renaissance paintings which had shown even the suggestion of male or female genitalia had suffered the absurd addition of a floating fig leaf painted in by later, more prudish, types. But even as early as 1896, Klimt had begun to be more explicit in the way he chose to depict the human figure.

      Two Girls with Oleander, 1890.

      Oil on canvas, 55 × 128.5 cm,

      Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (Connecticut).

      Woman near the Fire, 1897–1898.

      Oil on canvas, 41 × 66 cm.

      Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.

      There

6

Refers to the Musée des artistes vivants, established in the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris between 1818 and 1937 to house the French state’s collection of contemporary art.

7

The Künstlerhaus rejected such requests