Artist4 Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt is yet another artist with a very distinctive and of course interesting style. Does it remind you a bit of Eigon Shiele? Well, theres a reason for that. I don't believe I mentioned it in my last post but Shiele was a student of Klimt's. Klimt was very fond of Shiele's art and encouraged him to keep up the good work.

An Austrian painter, like Shiele, or should I say Shiele was like Klimt. Born in 1862, his subject of choice was the female body. I recall a kind of golden sense in many of his paintings, at least that is what I got from them, which wouldn't be surprising if that is what he attempted to do, for his father was a gold engraver. He grew up in a poor household, and recieved a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. He was trained as an architectual painter, and I agree many of his works have a sort of architectual appearance, even when they are of the human figure.


"The Kiss" I believe one of his more famous paintings. It looks as if he dipped his paintbrush in pure liquid gold and proceeded to use that as his paint. Here it is quite obvious of the influence of his father's work as a gold engraver. In fact he went through a phase that included gold as a huge part of his works. There isn't much...ok there isn't ANY shading in this picture, but the colors he uses and the patterns give this a very interesting feeling. It's obviously 2D and yet the patterns almost give a sense of shadow. The two figures melt together in their passionate embrace, though I'll admit, it looks awkward and I'd be shocked if their necks wouldn't be killing them.

Similar to Shiele, well the other way around again, there is a strong sense of a contour drawing, at least to me. I'd like to add that was the phrase I was thinking of to describe Shiele's work, yet I was brain dead and that word contour would not come into my mind for days. Their styles seem...I think rough is a good word for them, in my eyes, at the very least. But that roughness and gruge feeling is almost refreshing. "The Kiss" for example reminds me of a piece of jewelry, yet not one that you buy at the store but one that is artfully crafted, maybe a little gaudy. Not that that's a bad thing, some people look good in that stuff. Perhaps another way to phrase my idea of this painting in particular is it looks even adorned with jewels, especially on the structure the two figures are resting on. I suppose "gaudy" comes back to me, but also, I'm not a gold person. My favorite part of this painting, gaudy may it be yet still beautiful, is the pattern on the man's cloak. The pattern reminds me of something from the 1960's, not necessarily something that would be seen when this was done, at least I think it wouldn't. Anyway it gives a very "mod" look to something that is, well, not.