Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) – Austrian painter and graphic artist
Ver Sacrum. Gustav Klimt. XVIII. Ausstellung, Nov. - Dez. 1903, Secession Wien
Printed by Adolf Holzhausen, Vienna, 1903
Catalogue to the XVIII exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 1903
29 black and white illustrations of drawings and paintings
71 numbered pages
Glassine dust jacket with printed title and vignette in black
Dimensions: 24.8 x 23.3 cm
Good condition

In 1903 the Viennese Secession exhibited 80 works by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. The exhibition design was executed by Koloman Moser, featuring for instance his famous Purkersdorfer chairs. The entrance hall was designed by Josef Hoffmann. The show featured, among others, drafts for the works ‘Jurisprudence’, ‘Philosophy’ and ‘Medicine’, three monumental ceiling paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. The allegorical representations would later cause a scandal due to their explicit depiction of nudity. On the occasion of the exhibition the present catalogue was published with black and white illustrations of the drawings and paintings and a foreword by Ernst Stöhr.

Condition

The book is in good condition. The glassine jacket is slightly toned due to age and rubbed with a few small flaws. The corners are a little dog-eared. The pages are yellowed, a few have handwritten notes in pencil. The dimensions are 24.8 x 23.3 cm.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Gustav Klimt was supposed to become gold engraver like his father, but thanks to a scholarship he was allowed to study at the Vienna School of Applied Arts. In 1891, he became a member of the Wiener Künstlerhaus. After he left, he became the co-founder and temporarily president of the Vienna Secession, for whose journal he provided numerous designs and illustrations. Klimt was a close friend of Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte. Thus he was commissioned to design the famous frieze in the dining room of the Stoclet Palais in Brussels. Between 1907 and 1908, Klimt created his most famous painting ‘The Kiss’. Klimt was one of the most controversial, but also most popular artists of the turn of the century. Although his works were initially dismissed as decorative painting, he is now considered one of the quintessential forerunners of modernism. His works are part of major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA, the Tate Gallery, the Belvedere and the Secession in Vienna. In 2006, the portrait ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ was purchased by the founder of the Neue Galerie in Manhattan for the record price of 135 million dollars, hitherto the highest price ever paid for a painting. (tfa)

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