"Art is a line around your thoughts."
A seminal figure in late 19th- and early 20th-century modernism, Gustav Klimt spurned academic art principles, seeking instead to represent psychological states, spiritual truth, and the power of symbols in his murals, paintings, and prints. Like fellow members of the Vienna Secession, he advocated “a new art for a new age.” Although not an intellectual (by his own description), he produced his work in the electrifying Viennese atmosphere charged by Sigmund Freud’s psychological studies and Arthur Schnitzler’s literary endeavors. These three men and many contemporaries boldly confronted morality, deviance, sex, and aggression, thereby provoking the political and academic establishment while attracting the avant-garde.
Klimt’s paintings often combine three-dimensional figuration with large areas of flat, gilded ornamentation referencing his interests in engraving, pattern, symbolism, biology, theosophy, and sacred geometry. His stunning and completely unique works are secular icons radiating spirituality and sensuality.