The Beethoven Frieze - The Hostile Forces, 1902
I’ve read a biography of Klimpt which focussed on his erotic nature and its expression, and his mature work - I don’t recall it included so much about his early developmental period of Art Nouveau -historicism-realistic-Academic style. It is simply, unsurpassingly magnificent. More lush, more poignant than David, more sympathetic. What a leap the Vienna Secession truly made into modernity - in some ways more astonishing than the French Moderns; its natural energy was tragically cut by World War I, the flu epidemic, and the economic and political destruction suffered in the ensuing years.
Klimpt was a decorative graphic designer mural artist with the soul of a German romantic expressionist. In him, the element of line has an apogee that perhaps hasn’t been matched, though much emulated. It combines with elegance, modern psychological insights, and a tragic view of humans always suffering, with little respite.
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