Jul 11

GUSTAV KLIMT ANNIVERSARY 14th July

Posted on July 11, 2012 by lebrecht

14 July is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gustav Klimt, prominent Austrian artist, a founder of the Vienna Secession movement, and he remained with the Secession until 1908.

He is most remembered for his works produced during his ‘Golden Phase’ where many of the paintings used gold leaf. The paintings most popularly associated with this period are the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1907 – 1908). These paintings of Viennese society ladies have always aroused huge interest because of the exotic and erotic style. They have since sold for fabulous sums – Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I was reportedly purchased for Ronald Lauder’s Neue Galerie New York for US $135 million.

Klimt began his professional career painting interior murals and ceilings in large public buildings on the Ringstrasse in Vienna including a successful series of Allegories and Emblems. In 1894,hewas commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall in the University of Vienna. The three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and approach, which was criticised as being ‘pornographic’. Klimt had created a new language which was more overtly sexual, and shocking to the mores of the time. Objections came from all fronts—political, aesthetic, and religious. All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945.

In 1902, Klimt finished the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a dramatic, polychromed sculpture by Max Klinger. The frieze was painted directly on the walls of the exhibition . It was not intended to last beyond the exhibition but the work was preserved, although it did not go on display again until 1986. The face on the Beethoven portrait resembles the composer and Vienna Court Opera director of this time Gustav Mahler.

Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt, 1902
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilie Flöge, who, despite the artist’s relationships with other women, was to be his companion until the end of his life.

Gustav Klimt, Emilie Flöge and her mother
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

Gustav Klimt ‘s painting ‘Der Kuss’ (The Kiss)
© A. Koch Interfoto/Lebrecht Music & Arts

Judith I by Gustav Klimt
© IMAGNO/Lebrecht

Feb 02

Obituary images of Wislawa Szymborska, Polish writer and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature

Posted on February 2, 2012 by lebrecht

Wislawa Szymborska died yesterday at the age of 88. Through our partner collections in Poland and Germany, we have sourced some expressive portraits of the writer, who was described as the ‘Mozart of Poetry’ after starting to write poems aged four years old. Search online at www.lebrecht.co.uk for more pictures of Szymborska.

: Wislawa Szymborska in 1991. Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996

: Wislawa Szymborska at an evening of love poetry on St Valentine’s Day in Krakow, Poland, 14 February 2008

: Wislawa Szymborska in 1996. Polish writer, 2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012

Oct 25

New exhibition by Lebrecht Authors’ artist Zsuzsi Roboz opening at Messum’s Gallery in London on 26th October 2011

Posted on October 25, 2011 by lebrecht

The ‘Face to Face’ exhibition of British author portraits by Lebrecht Authors’ artist Zsuzsi Roboz is opening to the public on 26th October at Messum’s Gallery in Cork Street, London.

Zsuzsi Roboz first came to the UK in 1947 from Hungary, and is a formidable portrait artist. When we launched our website Author Pictures at Lebrecht in 2008 we asked Zsuzsi to paint portraits of the leading British writers. She was hugely enthusiastic about this suggestion. Zsuzsi Roboz has succeeded by charm and force of character to persuade many of the country’s most formidable authors, as well as some of the most charming, to sit for her – ‘face to face’ – and the result is an extraordinary study of the inner lives of British authors today. They include contemporary British writers such as PD James, Coim Tobin, Faye Weldon, Edna O’Brien, Josephine Hart, Philip Pullman – all now available on our website.