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.
"The author
has done a remarkable job of assisting the reader to enjoy and
understand the talent of this major artist who represents the
transition between two centuries." —School Arts
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.