color lithograph, high-grade lithographic paper; 54 x 18 cm (composition), 70 x 50 cm (sheet);
signed on board under composition p. d. "Gustav Klimt" and numbered in pencil "141/200". Dry stamp: "S.P.A.D.E.M. Paris" (SPADEM is the French equivalent of the Polish ZAIKS).
This painting is the centerpiece of the world's largest collection of Gustav Klimt's works at the Austrian Gallery in Vienna's Belvedere.
Gustav Klimt - Austrian painter and graphic artist, symbolist. One of the most prominent representatives of Art Nouveau, a representative of Viennese Modernism.
From about 1890 Klimt began to increasingly develop his unique expressionist style, which is distinguished by characteristic flat ornaments. In 1890, he left the Künstlerhaus artists' association and, together with other artists, founded the Vienna Secession. An association that made Art Nouveau, or Art Nouveau, a departure, a separation from the prevailing norms, rules and traditions in art. In 1897, Gustav Klimt stands in the spotlight of the jupiter in an instant. As president of the Association of Austrian Artists, he is a leading figure among the so-called Secessionists, those striving for a renewal in art. The Secession Pavilion in Vienna's Charles Square becomes the exhibition building for the new movement. This is a period of the biggest art scandals to date, culminating in 1900 when Gustav Klimt completed paintings depicting allegories of the faculties of the University of Vienna. In a letter of protest over the allegories of faculties painted by Klimt for the University of Vienna, it said: "We are not fighting against naked art, nor against free art, only against ugly art." At the World Exhibition in Paris, Klimt is awarded the Grand Prix for his painting "Philosophy" from the cycle of allegories of faculties. From that moment Gustav Klimt enjoys fame on a European scale.
Klimt's most famous painting is "The Kiss." The painting depicts a pair of lovers lost in a loving embrace, clad in golden robes in a flower meadow. Adam and Eve , on the other hand ,is Klimt's first and only biblical painting, and was thematically adevelopment of many versions of "The Kiss."However, while all incarnations of "The Kiss" are dominated by the man, here Eve comes to the fore. The man is passive, sleepy, while the woman is active, awake. The night ( the moon) was traditionally a female force, the day (the sun) a male one, and this is how they were depicted in "The Kiss." Here, however, it is the male who is associated with the night, while the brighter woman exudes the sun. Klimt gradually broke away from the stereotypes of sexuality native to the "fin de siecle" era in favor of a broader and more original vision.
