KLIMT

Cult of pleasure: Feminine sensuality by the Vienna Secession's greatest proponent

Gustav Klimt's ornate, sensual, and decadent style made him not only the most prominent of the Vienna Secessionists but one of the best loved artists of all time. In his own time, Kilmt (1862-1918) was a highly successful painter, draftsman, muralist, and graphic artist; in the intervening years, iconic works such as The Kiss have been elevated to nothing less than cult status. Klimt's unfading popularity attests to the appeal of not only his aesthetic sensibilities but also that of the recurrent universal themes in his work: love, feminine beauty, aging, and death. He once wrote, "I am a painter who paints day after day from morning to night... Whoever wants to know something about me... ought to look carefully at my pictures." With this overview of Klimt's work, readers will delight in taking up that challenge.