Posted on 04/07/2018 10:41:02 AM PDT by mairdie
For Captain Compassion. Quintessence Saxophone Quintet playing the Fudge Fugue in G minor. Roughly chronological for the Art History buffs. Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who did ceilings and walls of museums and theaters, as well as amazing portraits. There's an eroticism to his work that might not appeal to all, but his "golden phase" is breathtaking.
Wow, how could anyone possibly down-arrow this? Crazy.
I had a Youtube account once upon a time, I will see if I can recall the login to give you some up-votes!
Oh, Enchante, thank you! I’m so very glad you liked it. It was great fun to do.
I’m working now on Yves Tanguy and his wife Kay Sage as part of the surrealists. To Joan Baez doing Bachianas Brasileiras. If anyone has a favorite of that school that I should be including, now’s the time...
MOST appreciated.
That picture reminds me of the “Wood Between the Worlds” in C.S. Lewis’s book “The Magician’s Nephew.”
It does have that between quality in several respects.
Brava, mairdie! Great choice of painting and music. I love Klimt, especially his landscapes. Fascinating artist.
I have to admit that I didn’t remember his work until Captain Compassion reminded me. I’d been listening on and off to the Bach Sax Fudge Fugue and it had that playful quality that Klimt has. Match! Thanks to all of the great suggestions on FR, I’m learning a lot! Who would have guessed that Klimt started out as such a brilliant portrait painter. That mix of incredible artistry mixed with playful design is just brilliant. And his landscapes definitely aren’t to be confused with the French Impressionists, even though they clearly owe a debt there. All fascinating.
Nice video with a vibe. Klimt certainly liked women and the sax (though playing a Bach piece) is usually associated with a very sexy sound. Klimt’s women are very stylized and rich but sometimes there is a perverse quality, a dark femme fatale peeking out and I know he is considered a Symbolist painter. That whole time was the beginning of modern psychology and psychiatry. His painting lines are very masculine and sharp (you could cut yourself on most of these women) and the only thing that relates to the sax are the colors, especially the rich golds. Yes, the complexity of the paintings work with the complexity of Bach... Bach may have been talking to God, but Klimt is talking to women, which may be his God.
Wonderful! Thank you!
Oh, I love that analysis. What incredible fun.
Klimt, to me, is the merging of the old and new. His portrait work is as classical as it comes, just wrapped in the new mantle of design. That’s the match to the Sax Bach. The combination of old and new.
I desperately need to find some modernized classical pieces, but since I’m in the middle of a project now, I’m lazy about looking for something to order from Amazon. I have this vague memory that I used to have a vinyl of PDQ Bach, but when I tried to find something usable on YouTube, nothing had that clever playful updating that I thought I remembered.
As for the women - absolutely rich, though an interesting mix of also innocent young children. He seems to focus on the sexuality producing the children that are cherished. Not what I remember from Freud, who concentrated on sex for sex’s sake. Klimt is certainly talking to THIS woman. I love the sensuality. My favorites are the two Water Serpent paintings.
Oh, thank you so very much, Albion. I love laughing with joy with a friend.
Which movie?
Perhaps, but there are a number of Mozart pieces that will vie for that distinction, with Eine Klein Nachtmusik among them...
You’re right about the design as new — almost commercial design. And I would say that even saxes in the piece are stylized where the individuality is taken out — stylized to fit as a voice in a greater whole.
The saxes are there as a setting and Klimt’s art is the jewel in middle of the setting. The women are usually elongated, stretching up, trying to become a towering straight line. Reminds me of the Gothic Cathedrals reaching up to God, but with Klimt some women are also bent over and are showing their rear. Maybe that is their attraction too. And the flatness of the imagery is reflected in the decorative textile effects, women become stylized and flat, flat breasted too.
Yes, it is great to see the unity of the recent past with the more distant past.
Back To School
EXCELLENT observation on the elongation. That also serves to separate you emotionally. I can’t get over the emotional reaction to the faces versus the aesthetic reaction to the design. I’m jerked apart, not flowing together. These really aren’t sexy women. Even the one with her rump showing prominently, though her expression is sexier than most. Your first comments about them being rich comes back to mind. That’s part of their separation from us. Those distant expressions. Looking at the academy painters, their lack of connection to us is from their mostly being the same patterned face. Here, we know this is a great portrait painter, so when they don’t connect emotionally, it’s Klimt who is forcing them apart from us.
Fun! Oh, how I miss the old art history classes.
Thanks! I’m not a huge fan of Klimt. His work feels very uncomfortable to me. But this was a great compilation of his work. And the choice of music was great. I appreciate your work on these videos.
I love the educational aspect of these videos. And I think how long it would have taken to have gotten the same perspective back in 1966. I love the term “uncomfortable.” The fun part is figuring out WHY. The academy artists could always be relied on for a consistency. This one can’t be. Can you get any closer to the why?
What I loved best was the class wandering the Art Institute while the instructor pointed out aspects of the actual paintings. Then, when he’d ripped them to shreds, he told us to forget everything he’d said and just put them back together to see as a whole. Well, that and the fact that our life-sketching teacher made us draw the models without their skin on or upside down.
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