subject: Bio about Gustav Klimt and his works [print this page] Gustav Klimt, Austrian oil painting artist, founder oftheschool of painting known as the Vienna Sezession
was born on July 14, 1862, Vienna, Austria, died on Feb. 6, 1918, Vienna.
As an professional artist, he was graduated at Vienna School of Decorative Arts. And since 1883 , he opened his independent studio which specializing in the execution of mural paintings. His early work was typical of late 19th-century academic painting, as can be seen in his murals for the Vienna Burgtheater (1888) and on the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Since1897, Klimt shows his tatent on the style which finally been regarded as his mature stylewhich beencalled asVienna Sezession, a group of painters who revolted against academic art in favour of a highly decorative style similar to Art Nouveau. Soon thereafter he painted three allegorical murals for the ceiling of the University of Vienna auditorium that were violently criticized; the erotic symbolism and pessimism of these works created such a scandal that the murals were rejected. His later murals, the Beethoven Frieze (1902) and the murals (190911) in the dining room of the Stoclet House in Brussels, are characterized by precisely linear drawing and the bold and arbitrary use of flat, decorative patterns of colour and gold leaf. Klimt's most successful works include The Kiss(190708) and a series of portraits of fashionable Viennese matrons, such as Frau Fritza Riedler (1906) and Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907). In these works he treats the human figure without shadow and heightens the lush sensuality of skin by surrounding it with areas of flat, highly ornamental, and brilliantly composed areas of decoration.
During World War II Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer and several other Klimt paintings belonging to the Bloch-Bauer family were confiscated by the Nazis and eventually added to the collection of the sterreichische Gallery in Vienna. These works later became the focus of a lengthy legal battle, and in 2006 they were finally returned to the family. Later that year Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer was sold to the Neue Galerie in New York City for a then-record price of $135 million
