Klimt

Feminine sensuality by the Vienna Secession's greatest proponent Gustav Klimt's art expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper middle-class society around the turn of the 20th centurya society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure. The ecstatic joy which Klimt (1862-1918) and his contemporaries foundor hoped to findin beauty was constantly overshadowed by death. And death therefore plays an important role in Klimt's art. Klimt's fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest painters and graphic artists of his times. Particularly his drawings, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the erotic portrayal of women.