klimt revisited

since high school i've always dismissed klimt as being a "girly" artist. during his golden period (for which is most well known) he used tons of golden and decorative patterns, which i thought were just way over the top. not to mention his most recognized piece is the "the kiss". but having seen his works in person at the belvedere and secession museums, i'm completely changed my mind.

overall i didn't i'd come to love art nouveau as much i do now. it's pretty amazing what a week of visting art galleries will do.

to be fair to klimt, i never saw enough of his other work to really gain a strong understanding of his work. but it's really stunning. especially the beethoven frieze which is at the secession. why still in his style the work is darker than his golden works. the allegory and composition of the piece is also really bizarre... almost one of the four walls of the frieze is nearly bare with a simple repeated motif while the back wall displays an extremely intense scene. (the one below with the giant monster that looks like a giant gorilla and scary ladies).





but the piece i wanted to see the most was lost in WWII. it's called jurisprudence and i only saw a photo reproduction of it. but from what i could tell it was the strongest and purest version of his work.


so now i'm happy to say i'm a big fan of klimt. what's interesting is that in vienna the two painters whose work i love are so very different! klimt and egon schiele.