Art Inspires, Art Feeds the Soul, Art Makes Happy World and People, Art is LOVE!
I come to the end of the entries in the Blog and I cannot stop it. Indeed I will miss my daily entries about art in Vienna but a lot more than that the two stars of art in Vienna, #Klimpt and #Schiele. Every time I had an opportunity to see and admire a work by these artists in various auctions, I stood and looked, saw but never was immensely impressed as the works were either among others and lost their being there or were of lower quality to what I saw in Vienna and fell in love with! Yes, I admit it and I am not embarrassed for it!
I fell in love with the art of Klimpt and Schiele!!
If one keeps looking at the image of The Kiss above for days, there will be plenty more one has missed to see and understand. I looked at it, I look at it and I am still unable to describe the feelings and the art that makes me feel so. For me this is art that transcends the ages and starts from Byzantium and continues today. Icons, religion, humanity, passion, family and closeness, togetherness of humans in life and perhaps death, life on eart and the Universe!!
The image is not just about love of two people but about Love of a metaphysical, incomprehensible truth about humans and the highest feeling they can possess: LOVE!
The beauty of the young woman is angelic and the man in his golden robe takes you back to those saints, those martyrs of religion and passion. those humans who loved humanity to such a degree, that they sacrificed their lives for other humans. Then the humans become one, one body that takes roots and blossoms for ever in a sympan that surrounds them and makes them look so big and yet so small in the vastness of creation and the universe.
The Symbolism of Klimt is mesmerising, the clarity amazing and yet hidden from us on purpose. It takes ages and time to see what he really wanted to say through his art in order for this painting to become immortal and for ever the Love of all humanity of all denominations, creeds, colours, nationalities, poor or rich etc!
Eternal Love that joins humans in peaceful co-existence and life!!
Klimpt the Impressionist!
Klimpt seemed to have always tried to reach new heights and new horizons and his period of symbolism was at the same time the era of Impressionism, which is obvious even in The Kiss. His impressionism though was never the one the French School followed and developed but a unique impressionism he applied not only in his landscapes but in many of his figurative symbolic art. That uniqueness makes his art stand out as impressionist but also a special kind of impressionism which one deos not find offensive but rather very attarctive and very charming as it is different to Monet, renoir and other impressionists!
Klimpt was too much of a robust,, vivid imagination artist to remain faithful to soft harmonious colours as most impressionists did. He needed strong colours and strong contrast of colour as in the above painting which I title the Garden. The greens are happy to sit at the background as the artist intended them to be, but it was the explosion of flowers in the forefront that matter in this composition. Explosion of colours and flowers unite to impress the eye and attract the viewer and in that they succeed well.
It was the psychedelic colouration of his work that captures our vision and draws us closer and closer. Impressinist art usually demands viewing from the distance but in Klimpts case one feels the need to go closer and look closer and enjoy the brush stroke, the harmony of bold colours and their relationship on the canvas.
I hate to finsih this here as I have to move on to the student of the master Klimt, Egon Schiele. This was the prodigy that took in the masters teachings and in my view moved forward in a fantastic way that even today, his art is modern, contemporary and demanding our full attention to look at, to see and begin to comprehend the meaning and importance of it in modern art of the twentieth century.
Egon Schiele
I would hate to finish my entry today and rush it off so that it is over and done. Therefore and with regret, I am going to leave my writing on Schiele tomorrow in order to pay proper tribute to the work of a master who in spite his early death, left us a body of work that not only impresses but more inspires with its purity, its humanity and its love for human life!
