Biography
1891 - 1898
Vienna secession years
Klimt became one of the founding members and president of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) in 1897 and of the group's periodical Ver Sacrum ("Sacred Spring"). He remained with the Secession until 1908. The group's goals were to provide exhibitions for unconventional young artists, to bring the best foreign artists' works to Vienna, and to publish its own magazine to showcase members' work. The group declared no manifesto and did not set out to encourage any particular style - Naturalists, Realists, and Symbolists all coexisted. The government supported their efforts and gave them a lease on public land to erect an exhibition hall. The group's symbol was Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of just causes, wisdom, and the arts - and Klimt painted his radical version in 1898.
In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. Not completed until the turn of the century, his three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and material, which was called "pornographic". Klimt had transformed traditional allegory and symbolism into a new language which was more overtly sexual, and hence more disturbing. The public outcry came from all quarters - political, aesthetic, and religious. As a result, they were not displayed on the ceiling of the Great Hall. This would be the last public commission accepted by the artist. All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945. His Nuda Verita (1899) defined his bid to further shake up the establishment. The starkly naked red-headed woman holds the mirror of truth, while above it is a quotation by Schiller in stylized lettering, "If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To please many is bad."
In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a monumental, polychromed sculpture by Max Klinger. Meant for the exhibition only, the frieze was painted directly on the walls with light materials. After the exhibition the painting was preserved, although it did not go on display until 1986. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembled the composer and Vienna Court Opera director Gustav Mahler, with whom Klimt had a respectful relationship.
During this period Klimt did not confine himself to public commissions. Beginning in the late 1890s he took annual summer holidays with the Flöge family on the shores of Attersee and painted many of his landscapes there. Klimt was largely interested in painting figures; these works constitute the only genre aside from figure-painting which seriously interested Klimt. Klimt's Attersee paintings are of a number and quality so as to merit a separate appreciation. Formally, the landscapes are characterized by the same refinement of design and emphatic patterning as the figural pieces. Deep space in the Attersee works is so efficiently flattened to a single plane; it is believed that Klimt painted them while looking through a telescope.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Gustav Klimt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (view authors).
References
"The most important element of his fame is his reputation as a master of eroticism". Fleidel, Gottfried: "Gustav Klimt 1862-1918 The World in Female Form.", p. 14. Benedikt Taschen, 1994.
Sabarsky, Serge, et al., Gustav Klimt: Drawings, p. 18. Moyer Bell Limited, 1983. ISBN 0-918825-19-9
Fliedl, Gottfried, page 230, 1994.
Sabarsky, p. 7.
John Collins, Klimt: Modernism In The Making, Harry N. Abrams, 2001, p.99, ISBN 978-0-8109-3524-2
Frank Whitford, Klimt, Thames and Hudson, 1990. p.69.
Sabarsky, p. 9.
Jones , Jonathan (May 6, 2008). "Klimt's Dazzling demons". The Guardian. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
SheilaTGTG55 (October 13, 2011). "The Fire At Schloss Immendorf". Open Salon. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
Frank Whitford Klimt, Thames and Hudson, 1990, p.52.
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/04/looted_klimt_-_the_mahler_conn.html
In recognition of his intensity, the locals called him "Waldschrat", Forest Demon. Koja, Stephan, et al.: Gustav Klimt Landscapes, page 27. Prestel, 2002.
Anselm Wagner: "Klimt's Landscapes and the Telescope", Gustav Klimt Landscapes, pages 161-171. Prestel, 2002.
Frank Whitford Klimt, Thames and Hudson, 1990, p.103
Frank Whitford Klimt, Thames and Hudson, 1990, p.18
see timeline and life history Retrieved December 12, 2010
Gilles Neret, Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918, Taschen, 1999, p.84. ISBN 3-8228-5980-X
Alessandra Comini, Gustav Klimt, George Braziller, 2001, p.5. ISBN 0-8076-0806-8
Nina Siegal, DKS.thing.net, Retrieved February 4, 2007.
Christopher Michaud, Christie's stages record art sale, Reuter's, November 9, 2006. Retrieved November 9, 2006.
Kinsella, Eileen: "Gold Rush", Artnews, page 111. January 2007.
Kinsella, Eileen, page 112, January 2007.
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/11/someone-just-paid-40-million-for-mahlers-summer-home.html
Lamp.ac.uk
Ibiblio.org
ECFS.org
Whitford, speaking on The Kiss: The Private Life of a Masterpiece, BBC TV
Burbank, Luke Austria to return paintings to Jewish heir, National Public Radio, 17 January 2006.
"cartea romaneasca / catalog / carte". Cartearomaneasca.ro. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
Coin Update New Austrian Gold Coin Series “Klimt and His Women” 13 January 2012.
Sources
Hubertus Czernin Die Fälschung: Der Fall Bloch-Bauer und das Werk Gustav Klimts. Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-7076-0000-9 Carl E. Schorske "Gustav Klimt: Painting and the Crisis of the Liberal Ego" in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Vintage Books, 1981. ISBN 0-394-74478-0 Jane Kallir, Alfred Weidinger: Gustav Klimt. In Search of the Total Artwork. Prestel, New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-7913-4232-0 Julio Vives Chillida. El Beso (Los Enamorados) de Gustav Klimt. Un Ensayo de Iconografía, Lulu.com, junio de 2008, ISBN 978-1-4092-0530-2. Gilles Neret. Gustav Klimt: 1862-1918. Taschen, 1993, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8228-5980-3 Alfred Weidinger. Klimt. Catalogue Raisonné, Prestel, New York, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-3764-7
Pictures between 1891 and 1898
