Art is the Solution

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I Source: Wikimedia Commons While portraiture is a common genre in Western art, few paintings are as famous as Gustav Klimt’s portrait of his friend and patron Adele Bloch-Bauer. The painting is simply iconic, known throughout the world for its lavish gold leaf embellishments. In fact, the portrait is so famous and desirable, that it became the most expensive painting ever sold when it was purchased by the Neue Galerie in 2006 (although other paintings have since broken that record). Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is perhaps the pinnacle of Klimt’s creative and artistic production. Klimt is famous for his gold paintings, but his first portrait of Bloch-Bauer is his most lavish in this regard. The painting is encrusted in gold and silver leaf. Klimt conceived this artistic idea after viewing golden, Byzantine mosaics in Italy. Klimt brings the mosaics into the modern age with his portrait, which captures both the grandeur of the Classical past and...

Pallas Athena Source: gustav-klimt.com Without a doubt, Pallas Athena is one of the most striking and enigmatic paintings in the catalog of Gustav Klimt. While Klimt—an Austrian artist known for his extremely distinctive, Art Nouveau style—was known for his paintings of women, Pallas Athena lacks the overt sexual undertones usually present in those paintings. Rather, Pallas Athena seeks to explore the symbolic significance of the goddess, who was a major figure in Greek/Roman mythology. According to legend, Athena sprung from the head of Zeus as a fully-grown woman, clothed in armor. As such she is primarily known as the goddess of wisdom and of war, two characteristics that could be understood as contradictory. It is also important to note that these were considered to be masculine attributes during the time of the ancient Greeks and during Klimt’s own lifetime. This dichotomy within the character of Athena seems to have intrigued Klimt. Klimt was part of the symbolist mov...

Mäda Primavesi Source: MET Museum Today, I want to finish up our discussion of portraits of children with a look at one of Gustav Klimt’s most unique portraits: his painting of a Viennese girl, Mäda Primavesi. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which owns the painting, Mäda showed “remarkable degree of confidence for a nine-year-old girl, even one who was, by her own account, willful and a tomboy.” Unlike older portraits of children, Klimt decided to make Mäda’s personality the central feature of the painting. Her self-assured persona is communicated in her wide stance, challenging gaze, and the hand resting on her hip. Klimt lived in an age in which new ideas about human psychology were beginning to take hold, and his portraits reflect a deep awareness of the complexities of human personalities and emotions. Klimt—who was famous for his paintings of women—celebrates Mäda’s independent, bold personality. It is a remarkably nuanced work, presenting Mäda as a fully formed,...

Death and Life Source: Leopold Museum Following my discussion of El Velorio yesterday, I want to continue our conversation about the symbolic contrast between life and death in art. Death and Life by Gustav Klimt is perhaps the most starkly symbolic depiction of this dichotomy. Like almost all of Klimt’s work, the painting is firmly grounded in visual symbolism. Klimt was part of the symbolist movement. As the name suggests, the symbolists rejected naturalism and realism in paintings, instead choosing to explore the spiritual and philosophical world through the use of symbolic imagery. Their work aimed to access a higher truth, a level of spiritual and emotional reality that was neglected by the work of realist painters. According to my research , Klimt was inspired by the dance of death motif in Medieval art, which explores the idea that death comes to all people. His painting reexamines this theme for the modern age. On the left, stands the skeletal figures of death, gazing ...

Life is a Struggle Source: gustav-klimt.com Today I want to talk about a painting by one of my favorite artists: Gustav Klimt. Klimt was an Austrian artist working in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His style is extremely distinctive and draws inspiration from many different artistic movements and styles. I’d venture to guess that even art historians would have a difficult time classifying his work: it is simply Klimt-esque. Although almost everybody living in the Western world has seen his most famous painting — the Kiss — today I want to talk about one of his lesser known pieces: Life is a Struggle . Many of Klimt’s paintings were allegorical, and Life is a Struggle is no different. The painting depicts a golden knight, presumably setting off to do battle with the world. It dates from Klimt’s famous golden phase, which — based on my research — was inspired by his trip to the Italian city of Ravenna, which is famous for its golden mosaics. As the title suggests, the...