Before Art Deco There Was The Ornamentation And Decoration Of Gustav Klimt

For over fifty years I have enjoyed a quiet obsession with something called the Wiener Werkstatte. It was a community of artists in Vienna that grew out of the Vienna Secession, itself a larger expression of the Arts and Crafts movement beginning in the late 19th century. My fascination with this theme began during a semester of cultural history in grad school focusing on organic form and function in urban planning and design. Little did I know that the interest would reemerge twenty years later with my involvement in the planning and design of parks, visitor centers, museum, exhibits, publications, and other facets of resource interpretation in the National Park Service. The organization itself has sustained elements of the Arts and Crafts theme in its branding, architecture, interior design, and graphic identity since its founding in 1916. It is appropriately called National Park Service rustic or, more informally, Parkitecture.

One of the most interesting members to emerge from the Arts and Crafts movement and the Vienna Secession was Gustav Klimt, born in Vienna on this day in 1862. He is described as a symbolist painter, one who focuses on mysticism and imagination. Like many artists his early work was described as academic. At 28 he found his muse in Emilie Louise Floge, a fashion designer and entrepreneur who greatly influenced his work during their life-long relationship. . Many art historians claim this 1907 painting, The Kiss, is the finest expression of their loving relationship:

This painting, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), is also from what is called Klimt's "Gold Period" and is an equally familiar work:

It has an amazing history involving Nazi looting, museum purchase, decades of litigation, a $135,000,000 purchase price, art world disgust, one book, and five films, including the popular 2015 release, Woman in Gold.

As an artist active in the eras of Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, through Modernism's progression toward Art Deco, a style that emerged in the mid 1920s, there is much more to Klimt than the golden paintings. If you look at the body of his work you find he is a niche artist. At the same time you find the work compelling and complex to the point where it's easy to recognize his influence on material culture and imagination a century after his death.

Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park, 1912

Sources

Illustrations:
The Kiss, Osterreichische Galerie Bevedere, Vienna
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202
Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Text:
Gustav Klimt, Wikipedia.com
klimt.com
"Klimt Painted Much More Than 'The Woman In Gold'", Colton Valentine, Huffington Post, July 14, 2015