Sex, death, dreams and desire; Gustav Klimt knew them all. Few artists have been able to trace so precisely the circle of human experience, and fewer still have managed to do so in such startlingly beautiful fashion. Klimt portrayed nudity and eroticism with an openness and freedom that shook the Viennese art establishment to its foundations. He placed sexuality at the centre of emotional life, and dissolved any distinction between “high” and “decorative” art. He produced radical landscape paintings, superabundant images replete with every texture of nature imaginable. As the first acting president of the Vienna Secession, he rebelled against the suffocating historicism of 19th century Austrian art and embraced the international avant garde. After Klimt, Modern art would never be the same again.
His sensual portraits, with their shimmering arrangements of pattern and dazzling instinct for colour, are all intricately calibrated, each element executed flawlessly, and every brushstroke set like a jewel in its proper place. These paintings are almost frighteningly perfect. We can attribute this to the discipline that served as the bedrock for all his work: drawing.
Want to see the full collection?
Want to learn more about Klimt?
