Gustav Klimt: The Golden World of Artistic Rebellion, Controversy and Romance

hello welcome to artists in school the home of art history for young people and for interested amateurs today we're going to be looking at the artist Gustav Klimt wonderful painter he's very famous for producing paintings like these but did you know he also produce work like this I just go and find out some more shall we come on in 1862 Gustav Klimt was born at Baumgarten near Vienna on the 14th of July the second of seven children his father was an engraver and goldsmith from Bohemia it was unusually talented family his brother George followed his father's footsteps and became a goldsmith whilst his brother Ernst also showed the same precocious talent for drawing and painting but clinked himself displayed at the age of fourteen in 1876 Gustav and his brother Ernst were sent to the newly established school of applied arts in Vienna where over the next seven years they learned to master not only oil painting but mosaic and fresco techniques as well in his spare time clint earned extra money by drawing portraits from photographs which also helped to perfect his ability to capture accurate likenesses of people in fact the drawing professor was so impressed with the ability of Klimt his brother Ernst and their friend and fellow student France match that he recommended the trio for a number of prestigious commissions so it is not surprising that Klimt was just 17 when he found himself helping to design the pageant for Emperor Franz Joseph's silver wedding celebrations Gustav finished his training at the school of applied art in Vienna in 1883 and set up the artists company together with his brother Ernst and Franz match success came quickly and it was not long before they were working on decorative projects for wealthy owners of villas in Vienna and surrounding but the ultimate recognition for their abilities came when they were given the prestigious job of decorating the ceiling and staircase of the newly built burg Theatre in Vienna the theme of the decoration was to be the history of art from ancient Greece to the Renaissance and resulted in the quite remarkable series of portraits and images using a mixture of styles they started work on the Berg theater paintings in 1886 and finished some two years later shortly afterwards Klimt was awarded the golden cross for merit for his work on the project 1890 saw Klimt complete one of his earliest portraits that of Joseph pembaur the famous really is pianist in which he combined both naturalistic portraiture and a stylized background the combination of these Styles would form the foundation on which his future portraits would be based in 1892 Ernst and his father died and for a while Clint produced very little but in 1894 he and match' were asked by the Ministry of Education to produce a series of designs for the ceiling of the Great Hall at Vienna University after a great deal of debate it was agreed that clinched a tackle three panels on the themes of philosophy medicine and jurisprudence which represented three of the university's faculties it was a mammoth undertaking and something of an artistic and physical challenge for Clint however Klimt exhibited the first picture philosophy at the Secession exhibition in 1900 the critics had a field day accusing him of producing a painting that was chaotic nonsensical and out of keeping with the intended setting as well as been a completely different style to match his work the Minister of Education approved his ceiling paintings in 1900 three but Klimt was so offended by the outcry that he abandoned the scheme in 1905 denouncing overburdening censorship and protesting the lack of artistic freedom his battle between artistic freedom and conservative attitudes to art at first become public in 1897 when Klimt left the cooperative society of Austrian artists for the newly founded Vienna secession this was a radical group of young artists who were against Vienna's inward-looking provincial view of art instead choosing to promote a more international trends in art and the breaking of barriers between fine and applied art they published their ideas in there through their magazine ver sacrum and soon elected clinked as a secessions first president to Viennese society clinked appeared to be part of the establishment but privately he was completely the opposite he was a passionate champion of individual freedom and artistic freedom a bohemian who was much more at home wandering around this studio in his huge blue monk's smock rather than the suit adopted by many of the successful painters of his generation a scandal of the university paintings did not have a devastating effect upon Clint's career it's true he received no more official Commission's but there were plenty of private clients interested in his work and many artistically inclined wives of Viennese industrialists who were drawn to his ability to paint portraits of beautiful women in elegant language and flattering poses from this time onwards portraits such as these make linked a lot of money wealthy society women seem to love ISM conventional and an orthodox approach to painting in 1902 the leipzig sculptor max klinger arranged exhibit a statue of a tone at the Secession building in vienna which surprisingly was nicknamed the golden cabbage as a tribute to clinger Klimt and his friends refurbished the entire secession building as a kind of Beethoven's temple clint's contribution was a frieze running along three walls of a room consisting of four main scenes suggested by Beethoven's ninth choral Symphony you can see here how Klimt has recreated a visual equivalent of the passionate plural outburst at the end of the symphony also in 1902 he produced this portrait of Emily flowed the stunning image marks the beginning of a new phasing clint's art which is characterized by his use of large detailed decorative patterns combined with realistic depictions of faces and hems Emily flow was the younger sister of Ernst's wife and she was a fashion designer formed a fashion shop in Vienna and was Klimt companion for more than 25 years Gustav was generally devoted to Emily and spent almost every summer for almost 20 years with her and her family at fashionable lakeside resorts where he would indulge his love of swimming rowing and playing around in motor boats but they never married or had children but it was during these times that Clint produce many of his landscape paintings in 1905 he produced a portrait of the daughter of the wealthy industrialist Carl Wittgenstein who became would have clips most important patrons he made a face and hands seemed extraordinary alive and by the contrast the dress and the shawl are painted in the quietly restrained and subtle white and white fashion she didn't like the portrait it she thought it made her look too innocent timid and girlish during this time he allowed his garden to become totally overgrown and he would enjoy many hours painting pictures of it from very close range he also continued to paint portraits as you can see here this one being the portrait of Fritz a read ler who was the German wife of a top Viennese civil servant in 1904 Clint was asked to produce draft drawings for a frieze of three mosaics for a room in the newly built Palais Stockland in Brussels they completed the work in 1911 the freezes of indeterminant content and therefore open to a variety of interpretations in fact Clint himself rarely mentioned the piece at all although he did once describe the single woman in the picture as simply a dancer this period also coincides with what is usually regarded as Klimt golden phase simply because of the great abundance of goldleaf that appears in many of his paintings perhaps the most spectacular painting can produce during his golden phase and possibly his most famous was the kiss painted when he was 45 years old here you can see the wonderful balance between the glittering geometric ornamentation and the bed of flowers and the emotional fig force of the two figures expressed through their comp kneeling pose and powerful embrace surely the kiss represents the ultimate in human fulfillment Clint was now at the height of his powers and his popularity he regularly contributed work to many international exhibitions for example in 1911 he contributed eight paintings to a major exhibition in Rome and was awarded the first prize for his painting death and life during the winters he would work in his studio painting portraits are working on commissions but most summers would be spent painting landscapes around acta see a lakes and alpine region near Salzburg bring 1913 he chose to spend July and August around Lake Garda in Italy creating paintings of a small lakeside villages as well seen from a boat Clint commanded remarkably high prices for his portraits which was just as well because he would paint very slowly and often make numerous changes what was also annoying from his patrons point of view was that you would often be working on a number of paintings at the same time in 1917 Clint became an unremember of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna perhaps this was just compensation considering the Ministry of Education had rejected his professorship for the fourth time but on the 11th of January 1918 Klimt suffered a stroke in his flat in Vienna which paralyzed his right side hopes of recovery faded when he contracted pneumonia and he died on the 6th of February aged just 55 a few months before the complete collapse of the austro-hungarian Empire and the most exciting period in Viennese cultural history Klimt was a lifelong bachelor who had countless liaisons during his lifetime usually with his models and his rumored to have fathered more than a dozen children along the way but it was Emily Flo who was his inspiration and for almost half his life his most enduring relationship perhaps Klimt his himself best summed up his life's work when he said I had never painted a self-portrait I am less interested in myself as a subject for painting than I am in other people above all women thank you for watching I hope you've enjoyed the video and learned a lot about the artist Gustav Klimt if you're interesting the lives of other great artists then please check out my channel where you'll find lots of fascinating videos about some of the world's greatest painters please don't forget to subscribe and if you are interested in supporting the production of these videos and please check out my patreon channel I look forward to seeing you in the next video bye bye

Channel: Art History School

Views: 598,537

Keywords: Gustav Klimt biography, Gustav Klimt artist, gustav klimt documentary, Gustav Klimt, Klimt, Klimt paintings, klimt artwork, Klimt University paintings, emilie floge, Viennese Secession, Klimt The Kiss, life of an artist, Paul Priestley, decorative art, Adele Bloch Bauer painting, modern art, masters of art history, famous paintings, beginners, gold, gold leaf, Klimt Beethoven Frieze, Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence, klimt belvedere, Art nouveau, the kiss, Famous artist

Id: QjqjPNgf22U

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018