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| Man with Portrait of Johanna Staude, unfinished thanks to the flu |
AKA Klimt, part 2, far more cheerful!
Klimt is amazing. This exhibit is incredible.
The colors and depth were so spectacular that when we moved
from the Klimt exhibit into the older paintings in the permanent collection, I
literally felt a let-down. The paintings there seemed flat. I still love them...but
damn, Klimt does everything I want an artist to do!
(and Rodin's pretty cool too. But I have a grudge against
him because it was at his museum in Paris that I hemorrhaged and had to go to
the ER—my little French/English dictionary had the word for "miscarriage"—and
thought I'd lost a baby yet again. But! she's here, thank God).
I like to say Legion of Honor. It sounds like you're not
just looking at art, but doing something noble.
It's a glorious museum with a Rodin "The Thinker" out front and even a miniature pyramide de verre like the Louvre.
Anyway, I love Klimt and we drove six hours round-trip to
see this exhibit (actually shouldn't have taken that long, but see previous post). Plus, wanted a date day in the
big city.
It's a small exhibit with five rooms, but there is a wealth
there that could take up hours if you weren't being jostled for space by lots
of other viewers. Hint to Legion of Honor: please make description plaques
twice as large (and maybe even duplicate them to place on either side of wider
pieces)—sometimes you'd have to move through a sea of 20 people to read the
plaque and then you don't get to look at the painting again with the newfound
information. I heard several other people complain about the small print.
This exhibit space is gorgeous: look at the ceilings! The
black and white photograph you see on the back wall is a reproduction of Klimt's "Medicine." See a few paragraphs below
for an explanation.
This is Klimt himself, coolest of the cool. Sadly he died of
pneumonia complicating his 1918 flu (which I blogged about here) or we'd have so much more art to
delight our eyes.
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| Loving the vibe |
One of the many things that makes him great:
He tried three times to get into the prestigious Ecole des
Beaux Arts, failed and then went on to be one of the most well-known artists of all time.
Another thing that makes him great: he fathered 14 kids. And
you can tell by this picture why and how:
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| Section of a much larger frieze |
Another thing: there is an early painting of his (a seashore
landscape that I'm mad at myself for not photographing so I could show you)
that is fully representational to the degree it's nearly photographic. He was
so damn talented, but decided that was boring, and so moved on to create his
own style. Here's a few details of his explosive use of color and built-up
texture:
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| detail of painting I failed to write down the name of |
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| Detail of Klimt's other painting I didn't write down the name of Hey, this isn't investigative journalism! |
Another bit of admirable coolness: He was commissioned by
the University of Vienna to create three huge paintings, allegorical
representations of Medicine, Philosophy and Jurisprudence. He created the first, Philosophy, and
it was thought to be pornographic and there was public outcry. He withdrew it
and entered it in the 1900 World's Fair competition and won the Grand Prix! Eff
you, establishment! All three were destroyed by a fire in the Austrian castle
where they were stored during WWII, and all that exists are black and white
photographs of these lost pieces.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, this exhibit
closes Jan. 28 so get thyself hence post-hastily!
. . . .
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