Gustav Klimt's Golden Phase

His art was often criticized for being too daring, even deviant in his lifetime. Today he is acknowledged as Vienna’s most important painter. Gustav Klimt, the painter of beautiful women, the master of patterns and metallic colors, was born in July 14 1862 in Vienna. His father was a gold engraver and that has clearly influenced the development of his art. This essay will focus on his Golden Phase and what has inspired him during that period.

Gustav Klimt started by painting morals on walls with his brother and ceilings for mansions, theatres and universities. Later on, he focused mainly on painting on canvases. His style was a complex and contradictory mixture of Symbolism, Naturalism, expressionism and abstraction and as a result, it has

They used pieces of colored glass, shiny stones, gold and silver to make the artworks and patterns and that can be seen in Klimt’s work where he has used a lot of gold leaf and metallic paint in his art during that period. Klimt’s two visits to Ravenna in 1903 to study mosaic technique in depth and in person eventually led him to experiment with the potential of gold as a material used in paintings and the mosaic composition. The distinct features in his Golden Phase lies not only in the massive use of pure gold leaf and gilded paper but above all in the compositions joined together from naturalistic elements, ornamental motifs and precious material. His two most popular works, the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907-1908) are associated with this

It is easily one of his most famous paintings. Klimt hoped his art would symbolize something beyond what shows on the canvas, and in this painting he wanted to symbolize love and not only the power of it, but also the way that it can go as far as consume the subjects identities under it’s hold. The exaggerated amount used of gold leaf is the most obvious aspect in the painting and it clearly shows the inspiration of ancient byzantine art and the golden mosaics. The subject of the painting is exactly what the title implies, a kiss between a male and a female. What’s most captivating in this painting is not all the gold but rather the subtle details Klimt has included with great attention to them. Klimt shows distinct visual differences between the two figures. The woman wears a wreath of flowers in her hair whilst the man’s is of laurels, which is often seen as a symbol of conquest or achievement. The pattern on his robe is made out of white, gray and black rectangular shapes, whereas the woman’s dress is made up of circular and oval shapes of different colorful shades that clearly evoke femininity. Despite all those differences, both figures are cloaked in the same garment, which shows that Klimt is saying although they’re different, there 's connection that 's balanced between the two subjects. This is visible