Gustav Klimt was born July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, a Viennese suburb. His father, an immigrant from Bohemia, failed in his occupation as a gold engraver, and his children were raised in utter poverty. Klimt's family, like many others in Vienna in the 1860's, was in desperate need of money. Frequently changing address, they lived in small and poorly lit houses, wherever they could afford.
When he was just 14, Gustav quit school, but managed to enroll at a local college of art and craft. While at Bürgerschule, Klimt's artistic abilities were recognized, and he was encouraged to develop them. He applied for and gained a place at the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts school), one of two Viennese public art schools. He was so talented, he began earning a living off commissions while still at school. He formed a partnership with his brother Ernst and another student, Franz Matsch. Up until the 1890's , Klimt-Matsch & Co. were getting rich on commissions for the new buildings being constructed.
In Europe, historicism was in vogue. Legitimacy and authority were attributed through the use of past styles (Neo-Classical and Neo-Baroque, for example). This effectively denied artistic expression which could not justify its existence through historical continuity. A characteristic paradox of the emergent Viennese middle-class was the parading of objects in their homes, seeking to emulate the aristocracy they fancied themselves to be. Part of this façade involved patronage of the arts, which fuelled a period of intense activity in painting, sculpture and architecture. Towards the end of his attendance of the Kunstgewerbeschule, Klimt joined his brother Ernst and another student Franz Matsch in forming the Künstlercompanie, the Company of Artists. Upon leaving the Kunstgewerbeschule in 1883, the Klimts and Matsch began to work full-time producing various representational paintings for a range of patrons. Klimt wished to be seen as a painter of architectural decorations, a reputation underlined by the nature of commissions early in his career, which included works to be placed in theatres,
museums and churches. Contributions for a series called Allegories and Emblems were produced on request
for a publisher. Following this success, a second series was requested and produced (1896-1900), containing
Klimt's painting Tragedy. In this painting, elements that would come to characterize Klimt's later work are
already present: concentrated areas of detail, gold paint (Klimt's father was a gold engraver), the female form,
classical symbolism and areas of abstract space. Resulting largely from the production of decorations for the Kunsthistorisches Hofmuseum, Klimt and Matsch were commissioned in 1893 for the decoration of a hall in the new University of Vienna. This commission was different from previous ones in that the work was to be entirely their own: they could work with free hands. As the
University commission progressed, a rift appeared between Klimt and Matsch, which deepened to the point
where they would no longer work in the same studio. The commission dragged on, and it was some years
before the exhibition of the commission finally opened. One of Klimt's paintings, Philosophy , caused
widespread concern: " Within days of the exhibition opening, eighty-seven members of the University ... had publicly protested about Klimt's picture and petitioned the Ministry of Education to cancel the commission. They accused Klimt of presenting 'unclear ideas through unclear forms' : instead of making an unambiguous statement about the virtues of philosophy he had produced a puzzle which seemed to
suggest that the mysteries of life were ultimately impenetrable and that human existence consisted
of nothing more than the infinitely repeated cycle of birth, copulation and death. " A barrage of criticism followed, with Vienna journalist Karl Kraus accusing Klimt of being too simple to consider the issues involved in the commission. And it was not just Kraus: Klimt's painting annoyed virtually every
ideological faction in Vienna: the academics found the symbolism too vague, and the Catholics took exception
to the nudity. The painting also revealed a rift between rationalists and aesthetes: to the rationalists, Philosophy
seemed to be attacking the positivist interpretation of the world in which reality consisted exclusively of
demonstrable facts. Despite the extent of controversy, and the attraction of public attention to the debate, the
commission remained intact through the support of Dr Ritter von Hartel, the Minister of Education. " For Klimt this was the final straw. In 1904 he resigned the commission for the ten spandrel
paintings (which he had not even begun) and in the April of the following year he told the Ministry of
Education that he was not prepared to relinquish ownership of the three ceiling pictures and would
return all the advance payments. The Ministry replied that the paintings already belonged to the
State and Klimt was not entitled to keep them. More angry than ever and more vehement in his
assertions that no one had the right to limit his artistic freedom, he then declared that the pictures
were in any case unfinished. After further correspondence and a dramatic episode during which
Klimt is said to have kept the Ministry's removal men at bay with a shotgun, the Ministry finally
relinquished its rights to the paintings and Klimt repaid his advance. Soon after, the Minister of
Education resigned. " This was the end of State patronage for Klimt, who would never again receive a public commission. Klimt had finally decided that his integrity as an artist was under threat. This represented not so much a stylistic shift, but rather the culmination of a series of differences. What did shift was the source of Klimt's commissions, moving away from public patronage towards individuals and private organizations. As few private art galleries and dealers existed in Vienna at the time, the Künstlerhausgenossenschaft (Association of Viennese Artists) maintained a near monopoly exhibiting and dealing in local art. Dissatisfaction saw Klimt and others form the Secession from within the Künstlerhausgenossenschaft. In May 1897, the Künstlerhaus committee reacted by passing of a motion of censure on the Secession. Painters Klimt, Carl Moll, Josef Engelhart and eight others walked out of the meeting, to leave the Association for good. The three main aims of the newly independent Secession represented the very problems that Klimt and his associates had with the Künstlerhaus: exposure for young unconventional artists; to bring quality foreign art to Vienna; and to publish a magazine. The Secession can be seen as a manifestation of the conflict between traditional and modern throughout Viennese life, a reaction that had no manifesto or style, but shared a common attitude towards progress and individual expression in the arts. Crafts under the Secession were no longer considered as subservient to painting and sculpture: the result was increased support for architects, illustrators, designers of furniture, textile, books and stages. The Secession building was designed by Joseph-Maria Olbrich, a member of Secession. Above the main entrance, the following words appeared: Der Zeit ihre Kunst, der Kunst ihre Freiheit (`To every age its art, to art its freedom'). However, as acknowledged by the architect himself, the building was essentially a historicist work, with much style and ornament: `Everything had to be clothed in earnest dignity. Pure dignity of the sort which came over me and made me tremble as I stood in solitude before the uncompleted temple at Segesta.' The first large exhibition of foreign work organised by the Secession occurred in 1898. With 57,000 visitors, and over a third of the exhibits sold, the exhibition was a great success: Modern art had been introduced to Vienna. From the commissions on the sales, the Secession secured a long term lease on a piece of public land and by 1898 had completed its own exhibition building. By 1900, the Secession had replaced Künstlerhaus both as the receiver of international requests for exhibits, and as the premier artist association in Vienna. As a selector of material for exhibits, producing graphics for and being a member of the editorial staff of Ver Sacrum, Klimt remained at the centre of Secession activity until 1905 when internal strains between factions caused Klimt and several close associates to resign. The Secession never recovered. Klimt and others went on to form a new association, Kunstschau (`Art Show'), taking the motto from the Secession building with them. Klimt progressed through various stages of creativity, the driving force behind his life. Development occurred in all aspects of his work: technique, subject matter and theme; and continued up to his death in February 1918. Gustav Klimt's artistic progression is evident both in his work, which progressed in technique not in leaps but slowly in a series of steps (elements of previous technique are not usually lost, but exist in diminished or reduced intensity), and in the history of his time. It seems Gustav Klimt was a man of few words, but the following statement is a rare window to the client's self-image: "I can paint and draw. I believe as much myself and others also say they believe it. But I am not sure that it is true. Only two things are certain:
Within his work, the past lived through the mind of the present. Klimt presented history as part of his now. A language of symbols forms the basis of his artistic expression. Split ovals reside in waves of ornament (indeed, it could be said that a lot of his commissions have been vehicles for his symbols). A connection here can be made between Klimt's symbols and something which Adolf Loos once said: "All art is erotic. The first ornament to have been invented, the cross, was of erotic origin. It was the first work of art ... A horizontal stroke: the woman lying down. A vertical stroke: the male who penetrates her." In Danae , a vertical rectangle is all that exists to represent Zeus's phallic. Further occurrence of this `male' symbol can be seen in many places, especially on clothes .
Greek and Byzantine references are also liberally scattered through his work, but in such a way as to say something new, or something that should not be said. The portrait of Alde Bloch-Bauer reflects some of the many contradictions that can be found both in Klimt's life, and in its context: the portrait depicted her not as she was, but how her husband, who commissioned the painting, desired her to be seen by others. In addition, extensive decoration exists in contrast and in contradiction to areas of abstract composition. Further contradiction is to be found in many areas of Klimt's past: state monarchy (Austria--Astro-Hungarian Monarchy), fantasy--reality (prostitution can be seen as a conflict between fantasy and reality; a figment of male fantasy: sex without responsibility), citizen--immigrants (Vienna attracted considerable immigration both from within Austria and further afield). Ambiguity features strongly as another looking-glass image of Klimt's method. Interpretation is intended to be made, the depth of which increases like a plant that grows as lines and symbols recur from a repertoire of curves (Klimt's symbol of an aesthetic ambiguity / mutability) and figures. As can be seen in Water Snakes, and the Beethoven frieze , what appears is only intended as a suggestion of what could be :
"The riddle of the meaning leaves the observer looking for interpretations with nothing but the phenomenal certitude of autonomous forms, committed to no object and no description."
Freud considered the work of art to be the problem: art is ambiguous and uncertain, and it therefore becomes a challenge to any established set of ideas or rules. The matter of art lies : "not (in) how it is seen, but how the relationship is understood"
A theme of passion and fear can also be seen in Klimt's work: women. This theme exists parallel to the contrasts that surrounded Klimt, and is woven into Klimt's idea of woman and female sexuality. His search into the woman has led him to pursue separate emotional and sexual lives. Sexuality is a part of his work, which is with his latest sketching, increasingly concentrated on his self-perception and thought and fantasy: feelings are carefully kept away.
Klimt's erotic drawings are of women as objects, voyeuristic notions that exist for the spectator, a potential lover and voyeur; clothes not used to cover but to disclose, dramatise. The spectator is present in that it is for him that the woman has removed her clothes and is waiting, her genitals openly displayed. The woman is alone, only for the viewer. This can be said to manifest an underlying anxiety of the artist: fear of the danger of sexual attraction, of the destructive femme fatale side of women, and ultimately, of castration in the Freudian sense. Klimt's subject choice of women was apparent very early in life, his entrance exam for the Kunstgewerbeschule being a bust of a woman's head.
As life continued, the appearance of ornament decreased in Klimt's work, maybe as the need for it waned. Drawing and representational works represent the stages of late, and in them a reflective a turning-within, can be seen to occur: Only as a mature artist did Klimt fully realise that he must transcribe just what interested him . Klimt wounded public sentiment by not considering any part of the human anatomy ugly, shameful or ignoble, and was made to suffer repeatedly for not playing the national game of falsehood.
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