1994 After Gustav Klimt "The Girlfriends", First German Edition Poster

Description

A stunning poster after oil on canvas painting The Girlfriends (1916-1917) by Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918). Signed in the … more A stunning poster after oil on canvas painting The Girlfriends (1916-1917) by Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918). Signed in the print: "GUSTAV KLIMT". Printed on a sheet of heavy paper, on one side. First German edition as a poster. Excellent condition - minor edge wear, never framed. Germany, 1994.

Overall 12"W x 17"H

The original painting The Girlfriends was destroyed by fire at Immendorf castle in 1945. It was 3.25' x 3.25'.

Adolf Loos starts off "Ornament and Crime" with the famous statement "All art is erotic". With that remark, Loos meant to target "erotic pollution", a phenomenon spread to a great extend, in his opinion, by Klimt and the Wiener Werkstätte. Certainly, there is no denying that if ever there was an artist whose whole oeuvre can be considered in the light of erotism, then it is Gustav Klimt. His work focuses on women, whom he captures naked or sumptuously decked out, in motion, seated, standing, reclining. Women in all possible positions and with no restraints... reaching out to be embraced, experiencing ecstasy, in expectation of pleasure to come. And like Rodin, with whom he shared a passion for Woman in all states of emotion, Klimt felt a need while working to have two or three naked models constantly moving about in his studio, although they were not required to actually hold a pose. As a voyeur with something of the paparazzo in him, he always managed to capture a stance that had something moving about it, a gesture or an action suiting his libido. Klimt, whose "voyeurism" was directed at life itself, Klimt as a lover of women and servant of Eros: an artist who so enjoyed multiplying female figures in the fullness of their flesh that he sought to portray love between females. This is true of his paintings "Water Serpents" I and II and of this one, "The Girlfriends", done shortly before his death. Here the artist places Eve in the limelight, depicting her in all the plump and colourful succulence of a sated woman of Vienna. less