Sculpture "Tree of Life", golden version
Sculpture "Tree of Life", golden version
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limited, 499 copies | cast metal, golden | stone pedestal | size 20 x 16 x 6 cm (h/w/d) | weight approx. 1.5 kg
Detailed description
Sculpture "Tree of Life", golden version
The spiral branches of the tree of life are the central motif in the famous wall frieze in the Palais Stoclet in Brussels. Gustav Klimt designed the Art Nouveau ensemble from 1905-1911.
Sculpture model after the Stoclet frieze. Cast metal, decorated in gold with shades in the patina, on a stone pedestal. Limited edition 499 copies. Size incl. pedestal 20 x 16 x 6 cm (h/w/d). Weight approx. 1.5 kg.
Producer: ars mundi Edition Max Büchner GmbH, Bödekerstraße 13, 30161 Hanover, Germany, [email protected]
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About Gustav Klimt
1862-1918, Austrian painter, a famous representative of Viennese Art Nouveau
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was already a renowned artist, influencing the Art Nouveau style of Vienna's famous Ringstrasse with his murals and co-founding the Vienna Secession, when he created his "Golden Style". Inspired by the Byzantine mosaics, he inserted ornamental colour surfaces into a golden bed just like encased gemstones. In his pictorial programs, Klimt describes the human life path, where, negatively influenced by instincts, the person finds redemption in the kiss. The depictions of the body convey a subtle eroticism, although their figures dissolve into ornamental and geometric colour surfaces. He utilized this method not only for his depictions of couples but also for his portraits of rich women and landscape paintings. This two-dimensional style is today the epitome of Klimt's intensely coloured art, which, however, only characterises his work from 1905 onwards.
Klimt was not only adept at gold and opulence but was also a brilliant draughtsman. Throughout his life, he produced numerous drawings, mostly as preliminary studies for larger works.
As a son of an engraver, Klimt learned his craft at Vienna‘s School of Applied Arts. While still seeking to find his own artistic style, his early work is based on historicism especially influenced by Hans Makart, the artist Prince of the Habsburg monarchy in the late 19th century. Together with his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch, the three young painters formed an artistic community and received numerous commissions to design new buildings on Vienna's Ringstrasse. The staircases of Vienna's Burgtheater or the Museum of Fine Arts bear witness to the historicist style of this collaborative team.
In the late 1890s, like so many young and open-minded artists of the fin de siècle, Gustav Klimt abandoned the academic tradition. In 1897, together with other artists, he founded the "Vienna Secession", which he presided over as president until his resignation in 1905. To this day, the Secession's exhibition building remains a place and temple for new young art.
The term Art Nouveau, or the German term Jugendstil (lit.: "Youth Style"), is the art epoch between 1890-1910. The name originates from the Munich-based magazine "Jugend" (Youth), founded in 1896. It was the German counterpart of Art Nouveau (France), internationally known as Modern Style (England) or Secession (Austria).
Art Nouveau spread across Europe, resulting in innumerable works, ranging from painting and applied arts to architecture. One of the requirements of Art Nouveau was the artistic design of everyday objects, aiming to merge beauty with practicality. The desired unity of the artistic ability could only be achieved through individually influenced design, making Art Nouveau a precursor of modernism. The defining characteristic of Art Nouveau is its linear, often asymmetrical ornamentation. The models are particularly taken from nature and flora.
Major Art Nouveau centres were formed in Munich, Darmstadt, Brussels, Paris and Nancy (Glass Art by Emile Gallé). The Viennese architecture of that time was determined by Otto Wagner and J. Hoffmann. Gustav Klimt created paintings that gave sensual shape to the spirit of Art Nouveau.
A plastic work of sculptural art made of wood, stone, ivory, bronze or other metals.
While sculptures made of wood, ivory, or stone are carved directly from the material block, in bronze casting, a working model is prepared at first. Usually, it is made of clay or other easily mouldable materials.
The prime time of sculpture after the Greek and Roman antiquity was the Renaissance. Impressionism gave a new impulse to the sculptural arts. Contemporary artists such as Jorg Immendorf, Andora, and Markus Lupertz also enriched sculptures with outstanding works.