Gold, flowers, and female beauty: The work of the decadent Austrian symbolist

Unfading popularity of Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) tests not toly až do particular appeal of luxuriant painting but also to the universal themes s which he worked: love, feminine beauty, aging, and death.

The son of a goldsmith, Klimt created surfaces of ornate and jewel-like luminosity which show influence of both Egyptian and Japanese art. С помощью окрасок, murals, и friezes, его работа является defined с radiant color, fluid lines, floral elements, и mosaic-like patterning.

With a number of subjects dealing with sensuality and desire as well as anxiety and despair, all this irridescence is also charged with feeling. Klimt’s numerous images of women, characterized by curvaceous forms, tender flesh, red lips and flushed cheeks, were particularly charged with passion, at a time when such frank eroticism was still taboo in Viennese upper-middle class society.

This book presents a selection of Klimt’s work, introducing his pictorial world of decoration and desire, as well as his influence on artists to come.

About the Series:
Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Art series features:
a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance
a concise biography
approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions