GUSTAV KLIMT: From Drawing To Painting

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is perhaps the most remarkable artists to have emerged from fin-de-siecle Vienna. Heavily influenced by Symbolism and Art Nouveau, Klimt developed a controversial and highly personal style emphasizing decorative form and flat pattern, and conveying a powerful yet mysterious sexuality. His relationship with his home city seemed ambivalent: central to the culture of his time he nonetheless exposed unflinchingly the rupture between the artist and a society dizzy with its own beauty, on the edge of collapse.