Gustav Klimt (GUUS-tahf klimt), perhaps best known for his controversial style, came from humble beginnings and was trained in classical style. After years of serving as an architectural painter of murals throughout Vienna, he was criticized for his overtly erotic style. This criticism served as a turning point in his career. He then revised his own sense of artistic value that ultimately led to his fall from the conservative academic art world to self discovery with an inventive and versatile style that is untouched to this day.
Born July 14, 1862, in Baumgarden, Austria, near Vienna, Gustav Klimt was the second of seven children. His father, Ernst Klimt, was a poor gold engraver originally from Bohemia. His father’s craft would later prove to be a great influence in the highly ornamental style Klimt later adopted.
In 1876, at the age of fourteen, Klimt began studying at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts where he learned a variety of techniques including mosaics and fresco and architectural painting. His early works represented typical Nineteenth Century academic painting that include his murals for the Vienna Burgtheater and the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 1894, after painting the first of several contracted murals for the University of Vienna, Klimt was criticized for his erotic symbolism and accused of using excessive perversion. Along with the death of his father and brother Ernst, the backlash proved a pivotal point in his career in which he chose artistic freedom over public approval. Klimt soon began to collaborate with other artists to revolt the narrow-minded academic views of his critics and began a revolution in artistic style and expression.
In 1897 Gustav Klimt founded the Vienna Seze...
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... though employing a familiar subject (the female form), shows the transformation from busy mosaics with gold embellishments to a brighter palate of colors and the use of stronger, bolder lines. The piece exemplifies his versatility as an artist.
On February 6, 1918, Gustav Klimt died of pneumonia just a month after he suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. Klimt was quoted as saying, “Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist, the only notable thing—ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do.” If we follow his instruction, we will undoubtedly appreciate the passion and creativity he had for every genre of artistic expression. His talent proved limitless while pushing the norms of society and transforming and expanding his craft in ways that exceeded the expectations of all.
The face of the portrait is detailed, and more naturally painted than the rest of the composition. However, the left iris exceeds her eye and extends past the normal outline. The viewer can see every single brush stroke resulting in a unique approach to the capturing human emotion. The streaky texture combines with the smoothness flow of the artist’s hand creating contrast between the hair and the face. The woman’s hair is painted with thick and chunky globs of paint. The viewer can physically see the paint rising from the canvas and flowing into the movement of the waves of hair. Throughout the hair as well as the rest of the portrait Neel abandons basic painting studies and doesn’t clean her brush before applying the next color. Because of the deliberate choice to entangle the colors on the brush it creates a new muddy palate skewed throughout the canvas. Moving from the thick waves of hair, Neel abandons the thick painting style of the physical portrait and moves to a looser more abstract technique to paint the background. Despite the lack of linear perspective, Neel uses a dry brush technique for the colorful streaks in the background creating a messy illusion of a wall and a sense of space. The painting is not clean, precise, or complete; there are intentional empty spaces, allowing the canvas to pear through wide places in the portrait. Again, Neel abandons
Josef was born on March 19, 1888 in Bottrop, Germany. At the age of 17 he became an elementary school teacher. By 25 he studied in Berlin to expand his skills and become a certified art teacher. Through the years he continued to build his education attending several art academies; The School of Arts and Crafts, Munich Academy, and Franz von Stuck. In 1922 he enrolled to Bauhaus, a teaching institution in Weimar, Germany. Here at Bauhaus is where his achievements began and where he met his lifetime partner, Anni. In 1925 he was the first student invited to join the faculty staff and pronounced “Jungmeister” or “Young Master”. Josef taught various art classes and developed his own techniques as a figurative artist studying printmaking, stain glass, furniture as well as writi...
All the artist during that time all portrayed similar ideas that were introverted abstract art. Artist started portraying common objects in an abstract expressionism that were aggressive and emotional. During this era, Basquiat and other similar artist created pieces that were rich in detail that demonstrated different aspects of life. During this art movement, many people considered it be controversial and didn’t find the artwork to be intriguing. This movement started in Germany and later on settled in the United States. Neo-Expressionists were sometimes called Neue Wilden (“The Wild Ones”). The word Expressionism was a movement in poetry and in paintings and this is usually would present the subjective
Gustav Klimt was a part of the Vienna Secession art movement. Not only was he just a part of the Vienna Secession art movement, but he was the cofounder and the president. The goal of the Vienna Secession was to exhibit foreign artworks in Vienna, and to provide exhibitions for young unconventional artists (Moffat, 2008). The Vienna Secession was the most influential breakaway on conservative art across Europe and was big to promote its own ideas. (Encyclopedia of Art History, n.d.). Gustav Klimt was native to Austria and worked on his art
In this work, the colors and shapes come together to form the depiction of a woman in a chair gazing out at the landscape beyond a window. This subject matter relates to Picasso’s infamous relationship with women and may serve as a depiction of one of the many women he was linked with. The painting depicts the woman with a dual omniscient and introspective vision. Picasso develops this dichotomy through the depiction of a wayward eye gazing out the window and a larger ubiquitous eye glaring directly at the viewers. In constructing such a contrast, the painter is able to convey the personality...
His medium for his collages was a little bit of everything. His artwork prompted different reactions from the people around him. In Modern Art by Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis it states “Schwitters himself reacted to his rejection by the Berlin Dadaists in general and to Huelsenbeck’s attacks in particular with a self-assured polemic of his own” (Modern Arts, 273). Merzbau was one of the artworks that lack order. The artwork was a walk in collage which was constructed of grottoes, columns and found object.The college had a total of eight rooms. The pictures that were taken of the Merzbau was in the ‘Merzbau proper’ or also know as the ‘eigentlicher Merzbau’. In the ‘eigentlicher Merzbau’ was where Kurt Schwitters had began to work on in 1927. He always found something to shift or to add to it so it was always expanding and shifting. This cool college was also used for his studio. I thought it was really creative using items which he found on the streets since of the economy. The lack of order in his artwork made his artwork original compared to other artist. Since the Merzbau wasn’t finished it makes me wonder what it would have been like once it was finished or if he would never finish it, always finding something different to add to it. The sad thing is that the artwork of the studio was destroyed. The Merzbau was destroyed by a British air raid in October of 1943 (www.desighishistory.com). In the Telegraph it states
Andy Warhol was one of the most famous and successful graphic artists in the last century. His iconic paintings and prints are still remembered and noted today. If you see a brightly colored illustration of a celebrity, who do you think of? Andy Warhol, who was known for his portraits and product-based art work. Even looking at something as simple as a Campbell’s Soup can can trigger the thought of the 60’s artist.
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world’s greatest and most well-known artists, but when he was alive he considered himself to be a complete failure. It was not until after he died that Van Gogh’s paintings received the recognition they deserved. Today he is thought to be the second best Dutch artist, after Rembrandt. Born in 1853, he was one of the biggest artistic influences of the 19th century. Vincent Van Gogh created a new era of art, he learned to use art to escape his mental illness, and he still continues to inspire artists over 100 years later.
One of the most unique figures in the continuum of the art world, Marcel Duchamp changed the way we look at and produce art today. Marcel Duchamp was by far, one of the most controversial figures in art. Two of the most well known and talked about pieces by him are The Fountain and The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even . Duchamp created many other pieces that caught the attention of critics, other artists, and the population in a negative way; however, these two pieces alone, brought about the greatest amount of controversy.
Yet another catastrophe occurred in 1886 when Munch’s father passed away. Munch continued diligently with his work as he studied in France, and eventually developed the French Impressionist Technique. While in Paris, he used this technique to create art that symbolized his...
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Gérard Basquiat and Matilde Andradas. Little did they know at the time that Jean-Michel Basquiat would soon go down as one of the most important contemporary painters continuing to leave a legacy for decades to come after his passing. Basquiat would live a difficult life and experience many hardships until he later dies of a heroin overdose, but what he experiences during his lifetime is what shaped the way Basquiat expressed himself through his art. Basquiat’s exceedingly personal and relatable art is what guided him to being such an influential artist. “His work is likely to remain for a long time as the modern picture of
Art is a very important part of humanity’s history, and it can be found anywhere from the walls of caves to the halls of museums. The artists that created these works of art were influenced by a multitude of factors including personal issues, politics, and other art movements. Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh, two wildly popular artists, have left behind artwork, that to this day, influences and fascinates people around the world. Their painting styles and personal lives are vastly different, but both artists managed to capture the emotions that they were feeling and used them to create artwork.
Georges Seurat was a French born artist born on December 2nd 1859 in Paris, Frrance. He study at École des Beaux-Art, which was one of the most prestige art schools in the world, which is also known for training many of the renounced artist we know. George Seurat left the École des Beaux-Art and began to work on his own; he began to visit impressionist exhibitions, where he gained inspiration from the impressionist painters, such as Claude Monet. Seurat also was interested in the science of art; he explored perception, color theory and the psychological effect of line and form. Seurat experimented with all the ideas he had gained, he felt the need to go beyond the impressionist style, he started to focus on the permanence of paintin...
The gestural and heavy working of the paint and the contrasting colors make the painting appear active yet are arduous to follow. The defining element of Woman and Bicycle is the presence of the black lines that do most of the work in terms of identifying the figure. Through the wild nature of the brushwork, color, and composition of the painting, it can be implied that the artist is making an implication towards the wild nature of even the most proper of women.
This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.