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Tribute to KLIMT |
Gustav Klimt's inspiration lives on
One hundred years after Klimt's death, it would not be fair to simplify our view of his art with the premise that "all art is erotic." It is necessary to immerse yourself in the Klimtian spirit to understand that his universe is more complex and always interesting.
I have worked hard over the last few years to pay direct tribute to some of Gustav Klimt's most significant pieces, giving them my vision and fusing their inspiration with my style. I hope you like this work and appreciate the effort and dedication behind it.
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Moving Water |
Bewegtes wasser (1898)
At the end of the 19th century, the Secession movement was at its height. Its members, championed by Klimt himself, longed for an opening in the world of art that would allow them to create and live on it outside the great state powers, seeking their patronage in more mundane circles, as well as freer and less restricted by the censorship. Leaving government commissions aside, Gustav opens a period of transition between his classical realist stage and the incipient revolutionary modernism of Art Nouveau.
The symbolist Klimt that transits towards Art Nouveau in the period of the change of centuries is an evolution of him that manages to perfectly dominate the artistic rules in order to break them. To be able to make the symbolist compositions of the mature Klimt, which masterfully break the rules of perspective, it is necessary to be a true master.
Influenced by Japanese prints and classical Greek art, Moving Water brings together all the issues discussed above. The artist uses the original Fish Blood illustration as a base and adds a series of elements that reinforce his oneirism, lesbian sensuality, even with a lascivious tone that would culminate years later in the double and masterful Water Serpents.
Bewegtes wasser, 1898
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The stream of sensuality
The aesthetic question dominates ethics. The intention was to create a beautiful, sensual work that maintained the spirit of the original. As far as inspiration is concerned, it is clear that his most important point is the use of color. The original work appears cloudy, dark. I chose to add a background that is faithful to my creations, but that adapts perfectly to the final composition.
The result is a work of complex composition, which needs to be looked at several times. It overflows sensuality and eroticism, just like the original. The difficulty of its elaboration gives it a special halo, being perhaps the least belligerent of those that are part of the project, but it is also necessary to make art for the love of art.
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Juan Nepomuceno © 2020
Water Serpents II |
Wasserschlangen II (1904-1907)
At the beginning of the 20th century, after abandoning the Secession movement and retiring to live on the outskirts of Vienna, Klimt began a period of greater creative freedom, in which he produced some of his most famous and recognized works and increased his degree of eroticism.
At the end of the 19th century there had been a transversal movement to recognize or enhance the value of the female figure, represented by artists as diverse as Courbet or Toulouse-Lautrec. This marked trend took on a new dimension with the creations of the beginning of the century by Gustav Klimt, who endowed the women protagonists of his paintings with a freedom, eroticism and sensuality practically unknown until then, within his modernist-symbolist style.
Klimt painted a first version of Water Serpents in 1904, and took up the idea again in 1907. Moving away from the golden ornament of previous works, he added floral and aquatic elements to mark one of his most symbolic works. The female protagonists swim in the current like sensual snakes, referring to elements considered sexual by Freudian psychology. It is a dreamlike and transgressive work with classical compositional perspectives.
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Wasserschlangen II, 1904-07
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Overflowing eroticism
The beauty of the captured scene has the mission of captivating the viewer. The colored mosaics and capers in the background, the golden ornaments, the waves that fade as if they were foaming water, and the floral decorations contribute to creating that dreamlike aura so present in much of Klimt's work.
Despite being an aesthetic tribute, there is a certain ethical foundation in it: from the point of view of sexuality. Klimt reflected in his works a latent but evident sensuality and lesbianism, very controversial at his time. Today should be a won fight, but it is not. With every gesture and act we fight to normalize sexual freedom and gain some ground for tolerance.
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Juan Nepomuceno © 2020
The Kiss |
Der Kuss (1907-1908)
Of a rebellious nature and habitually contrary to the moral and aesthetic canons of his time, Gustav Klimt marks a new stage in his evolution and subtly dilutes the presence of his "pornographic perversion" in what is possibly his most famous and recognized work. The Kiss, in addition, has a great reception among the public of its time and is easily sold.
The arrival of the new century brought important changes to Klimt's life. After leaving the Secession and moving to the outskirts of Vienna, he quit working for the state and became a portraitist of bourgeois wives. His new work revolves around his main motif: a feminized and sensual universe.
It is not clear whether the models for The Kiss are Klimt himself and his muse and lover for years, Emilie Flöge -a great collaborator and inspiration for part of his work-. Unlike other works, this one escapes censorship and the male figure becomes the protagonist, acquiring a dominant role. It is one of his less explicit and more sensual works.
Der Kuss, 1907/08
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A Kiss in modern times
Is it possible to pay homage to Klimt's magnum opus without falling into clichés? I wanted to keep the sensuality without sacrificing the essence or the original motivation and vindication. After much thought, I decided that it was necessary to update the theme. Klimt's universe was feminized. The artist was controversial and a womanizer, but in a way he empowered women by making them protagonists without excuses, giving them sexual freedom. He fought against established censorship and morality.
Trying to adapt these motivations over time, I decided that the central theme of my tribute should be the vindication of sexual freedom against censorship and the most stagnant morality. For this reason, the protagonists of my version of the Kiss are two men, two people expressing their love in equality and in freedom. Long live free love!
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Juan Nepomuceno © 2020
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Juan Nepomuceno © 2020
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Danae |
Danaë (1907-1908)
Klimt had somehow abandoned his most erotic essence with the creation of The Kiss, which had partly led him to be the standard-bearer of the Secession and challenge the moral and aesthetic canons of his time. With Danae returns to his most authentic path, that of the most symbolic and overflowing eroticism. It is possibly his most erotic and passionate work.
The Oracle predicted to Acrisio, king of Argos, that a grandson who had not yet been born would be his murderer. To prevent this, he locks his daughter Danae in a tall bronze tower. The libidinous Zeus discovers the facts, and turns into a shower of gold to enter the pressure and impregnate the young woman. It was too rich a Greek myth for Klimt to pass up the opportunity to give him his vision of it.
The protagonist is a red-haired girl, a cliché very much to Klimt's liking, whom we see lying in a forced fetal pose but at the same time harmonically golden and pleasant. Wrapped in purple fabrics masterfully painted to simulate transparencies and decorated with gold stamping in the purest Klimtian style, the beautiful young Danae moans with pleasure upon receiving the golden jet that represents Zeus's semen. Danae is the orgasm of art.
Danaë, 1907-08
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The ecstasy of gold
Along with The Kiss, Danaë's chapter was the most essential of this tribute. It is a work with such a symbolic and erotic charge that I wanted to do it with great eagerness and enthusiasm, but also as faithfully as possible to the original, which requires a great effort. For this, I had the collaboration of an excellent model, and we tried to naturalize the pose so that it would not be forced and unreal.
Danae lies with her legs folded over her, apparently relaxed after the ecstasy of love. As in the original work, an orgasmic golden shower covers and overwhelms her. I tried to make the ornamentation as faithful as possible to the original, painting translucent purple fabrics with stamping in gold motifs. In addition to this, she appears lying on an immaculate white bed, and the background is a gold carving typical of Klimtian art.
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Juan Nepomuceno © 2020
"Stop thinking, let everything flow, sit under the sun and enjoy life."
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