A KLIMT KIND OF SEASON
With the passing of autumn’s splendid apogee, I see and feel Klimt’s truth everywhere. Before shedding her frocks for her deep winter’s sleep, Mother Nature continues to dance in her quietly passionate celebration. The patchwork strokes of her brightly pigmented garments still paint the deciduous trees as colorful abstractions—the sensuous lines of charcoal tinted trunks and limbs lacing them together. |
On recent mornings I have thought often of Klimt and his art when our Aussie Lasyrenn and I headed out on her training walks going east. With the gentle sun stretching rich and golden across the spacious lawns of Central Park, we seemed to be striding into the atmosphere of a Klimt painting. |
In Vienna in 1862, Gustav Klimt was born, the second of seven children in a lower middle-class family of Moravian origin. His father, Ernst Klimt, an engraver and goldsmith, earned very little money, and the artist’s childhood was spent in semi-poverty.
In 1876, at age fourteen Gustav Klimt received a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. After completing his studies in 1883, his commissions for murals in public buildings carried him to the height of artistic fame. Becoming a fashionable, highly compensated portraitist Klimt began supporting his family of birth while he dramatically began turning toward Art Nouveau’s radical new styles incorporating Japanese, Chinese, Ancient Egyptian and Mycenaean art styles. Favoring decorative patterns, he painted beautiful women in elegant, flattering and languid poses.
At artCentral in this celebratory season you can find lovely hints of Klimt in the glittering reflections of metallic surfaces adeptly painted by artists Ina Niday and Mary Datum.
Come see their celebratory art in TWO FRIENDS | OIL PAINTINGS; and visit the SMALL WORKS | GREAT WONDERS Silent Auction Fundraiser. Both are available for your viewing, bidding and holiday shopping through December 5, at 1110 East Thirteenth Street in Carthage. Weekend Gallery Hours are each Friday and Saturday from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. with CDC protocols practiced at Hyde House. All images are available online at www.artcentralcarthage.org. For additional information call (417) 358-4404.