Synopses & Reviews
Gold, flowers, and female beauty: The work of the decadent Austrian symbolist The unfading popularity of
Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) attests not only to the particular appeal of his luxuriant painting but also to the universal themes with which he worked:
love, feminine beauty, aging, and
death.The son of a goldsmith, Klimt created surfaces of ornate and jewel-like luminosity which show influence of both Egyptian and Japanese art. Through paintings, murals, and friezes, his work is defined by
radiant color, fluid lines, floral elements, and mosaic-like patterning.
With a number of subjects dealing with sensuality and desire as well as anxiety and despair, all this irridescence is also charged with feeling. Klimt's numerous images of women, characterized by
curvaceous forms, tender flesh, red lips and flushed cheeks, were particularly charged with passion, at a time when such frank eroticism was still taboo in Viennese upper-middle class society.
This book presents a selection of Klimt's work, introducing his pictorial world of decoration and desire, as well as his influence on artists to come.
About the Series:Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
Synopsis
Gold, flowers, and female beauty: The work of the decadent Austrian symbolist The unfading popularity of
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) attests not only to the particular appeal of his luxuriant painting but also to the universal themes with which he worked:
love, feminine beauty, aging, and
death.The son of a goldsmith, Klimt created surfaces of ornate and jewel-like luminosity which show influence of both Egyptian and Japanese art. Through paintings, murals, and friezes, his work is defined by
radiant color, fluid lines, floral elements, and mosaic-like patterning.
With a number of subjects dealing with sensuality and desire as well as anxiety and despair, all this irridescence is also charged with feeling. Klimt's numerous images of women, characterized by
curvaceous forms, tender flesh, red lips and flushed cheeks, were particularly charged with passion, at a time when such frank eroticism was still taboo in Viennese upper-middle class society.
This book presents a selection of Klimt's work, introducing his pictorial world of decoration and desire, as well as his influence on artists to come.
About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:
- a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
- a concise biography
- approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
Synopsis
The unfading popularity of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) attests not only to the particular appeal of his luxuriant painting but also to the universal themes with which he worked: love, feminine beauty, aging, and death.
The son of a goldsmith, Klimt created surfaces of ornate and jewel-like luminosity which show the influence of both Egyptian and Japanese art. Through paintings, murals, and friezes, his work is defined by radiant color, fluid lines, floral elements, and mosaic-like patterning.
With subjects ranging from sensuality and desire to anxiety and despair, all this iridescence is also suffused with feeling. Klimt's numerous images of women, characterized by curvaceous forms, tender flesh, red lips, and flushed cheeks, were particularly charged with passion, at a time when such frank eroticism was still taboo in Viennese upper-middle-class society.
This book presents a selection of Klimt's work, introducing his pictorial world of decoration and desire, as well as his influence on artists to come.
About the series
Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:
a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
a concise biography
approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions
Synopsis
Gold, flowers and female beauty: The work of the great Austrian symbolist Gustav Klimt’s ornate art expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna’s upper middle-class society around the turn of the 20th century—a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure.
The ecstatic joy which Klimt (1862–1918) and his contemporaries found—or hoped to find—in beauty was constantly overshadowed by death. And death therefore plays an important role in Klimt’s art. Klimt’s fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest erotic painters and graphic artists of his times. His drawings in particular, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the sensual portrayal of women.
About the Author
Gilles Néret (1933-2005) was an art historian, journalist, writer and museum correspondent. He organized several art retrospectives in Japan and founded the SEIBU museum and the Wildenstein Gallery in Tokyo. He directed art reviews such as L'Œil and Connaissance des Arts and received the Elie Faure Prize in 1981 for his publications. His TASCHEN titles include Salvador Dalí: The Paintings, Matisse, and Erotica Universalis.