Gustav Klimt: Artist of the Century

In 2018, 100 years after Gustav Klimt’s death, the Leopold Museum in Vienna paid tribute to him as the leading artist of the period around 1900 with an exhibition called “Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century.”

 

It showcased Gustav Klimt’s art and was divided into eight themes illustrating all the periods of the artist’s works. It comprised 35 Gustav Klimt paintings, 90 Gustav Klimt drawings, 30 photographs, and approximately 150 archival documents. The exhibition also includes a selection of landscapes created during his summer sojourns. 

 

It was the most comprehensive exhibition of Klimt’s works ever presented. It included results from the Leopold Museum collections and the Leopold Private Collection, and exhibits from the Klimt Foundation and other private collections. 

“Death and Life” and “The Bride”

“Death” and Life” and “The Bride,” two monumental works by Klimt, were exhibited as examples of the different ways Klimt addressed the cycle of life in all its phases. 

 

Klimt had initially prepared these two paintings with many drawings. As a result, some sketches were exhibited with some other Gustav Klimt artworks during the “Gustav Klimt: Artist of the Century” presentation. They offered insights into the creative processes of the works and Klimt’s artistic development.

His Beginnings at The Height of the Gründerzeit Era

Klimt started as an artist at the height of the Gründerzeit era. The “Gustav Klimt: Artist of the Century” exhibition illustrated how Klimt himself had been for two decades part of this cultural era with its classical traditions before he emerged as a campaigner against the Gründerzeit style.

 

The exhibition then followed the “Klimt-journey” from his first commissions to create naturalistic decorations for the Viennese rich and famous to founding the studio “Kunstler Compagnie” with his brother and a friend in 1883. The studio “Kunstler Compagnie” received numerous commissions for murals and luxury art. 

 

Examples of artworks from this era include the ceiling paintings for the two staircases of the Burgtheater between 1886 and 1888. The other artwork is the paintings for the Kunsthistorisches Museum between 1887 and 1891. 

Klimt and the Vienna Secession

The exhibition also highlighted and recognized Klimt’s role in the founding of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists that stood up against conservatism in art. In 1897 they proclaimed their Secession from the Kunstlerhaus and, under the presidency of Klimt, founded the Union of Austrian Artists Vienna Secession. 

 

The Secession aimed to educate society through future-oriented artistic concepts, and therefore their motto was “To every age its art, to art its freedom.” Gustav Klimt contributed numerous illustrations to the Secession’s magazine “Ver Sacrum.” 

Culture Struggle Surrounding the Scandalous Faculty Paintings

One of the phases in Klimt’s development started when he received the commission in 1894 to create Faculty Paintings for Vienna University’s Great Hall. This commission provoked a dispute that led the university to decide not to use any of the three paintings in the “Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century” Exhibition tribute was paid to this phase.   

 

Klimt exhibited the first of the three works he was creating for the university at the 7th Secession Exhibition in 1900. It was called “Philosophy.” The second work, “Medicine,” was exhibited at the 10th Secession Exhibition in 1901, and his last work, “Jurisprudence,” was shown at the 18th Secession Exhibition in 1903.

 

The works received criticism from the professors and art critics and were even described as pornographic. As a result, he resigned from the commission and reimbursed the state his fee in 1905.

The Vienna Kunstschau in 1908

Klimt’s involvement in the Vienna Kunstschau in 1908 was another milestone showcasing his influence on art developments during that time. He emphasized the importance of applied arts in the speech at the opening of the Kunstschau. He stressed no difference between “high” visual and low” applied arts. This phase was also represented in the tribute towards him in 2018.

Klimt’s Landscapes

Klimt’s landscapes formed an integral part of the “Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century” Exhibition. His landscapes were predominantly created in nature, or sometimes from photographs and postcards in his Vienna studio. Klimt wanted to depict a natural environment reflecting a tranquil atmosphere independent of man. His symbolic expression and interest in aspects of timelessness and transience were central to his landscapes, which formed about one-quarter of his portfolio. 

 

During his summer vacations with Emilie Floge and her family on the Attersee, he created most of his landscapes. Emilie Floge is, until today, regarded as his inspiring “muse.”

Klimt’s Female Portraits and Erotic Drawings

With the “Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century” Exhibition tribute was also paid to Klimt as the painter of women par excellence. His range of female types includes the idealized lady of society, but also the erotic-fetishized woman and the demonized “femme fatale.” His idealized lady of society type of paintings gave him a reputation as a painter of distinguished female portraits. 

 

However, the drawings accompanying his female portraits also earned Klimt the reputation of an “eroticist.”

The Bottom LIne

When Gustav Klimt died in 1918, Berta Zuckerkandl wrote in the “Wiener Zeitung” about the painful loss and said: “One of the greatest has passed away. A plain hero. A silent, tenacious fighter. An unconquerable.”

 

Gustav Klimt can be considered as “the artist of the 20th century,” and the Leopold Museum’s “Gustav Klimt. Artist of the Century” Exhibition in 2018″ was a great tribute to this extraordinary Viennese artist.