Essential Klimt

First of all, the book is not covered as shown in the amazon photo which shows the famous "kiss" painting. The book, apparently updated in 2006, shows a cover photo of Klimt's famous Danae (1907-8) oil on canvas painting. I think this cover is more provacative and more organic and softer than the famed Kiss painting which reveals a couple entwined in gold looking rather stiff. Danae was certainly a better choice for the cover. The book is definitely not written for the casual art reader. It is written with extreme depth as what I'd expect from a historian of the arts on a university research level. As verbose as it is, it has plenty, if not hundreds of photos of the famous works, including all of Klimt's paintings and lesser known sketches. The author discusses several of Klimt's famous paintings in depth and reviews various critics of Klimt's time period as well as Klimt's personal opinions and struggles. Culture, politics, and various movements in the arts is also discussed at length. This book is too deep for the casual browser or reader but makes a great coffee table book if only for the pictures alone. It is a high quality book and the pages are high quality (acid free) and glossy. The painting photos are rich and fully colored, better than other books I've bought on Klimt (where the precious gold paint is reduced to lousy brownish or greenish prints). The gold tones in this book, so famous in Klimt's work, are reproduced extremely well as well as the other vivid colors so characteristic of Klimt's work. It's a bargain to get this book at the price.

If you like Klimt this large and heavy coffee table book is a win.

Artist Gustav Klimt can easily be brushed off as the Art Nouveau master of gilding and creator of iconic, erotic paintings such as "The Kiss," yet in this thoughtfully and thoroughly wrought biography-cum-art criticism the reader is treated to an in-depth personal and familial history, with diverse interpretations of his seminal works, and fascinating retrospective of the painter's lifetime body of work. Especially fascinating were the examination of resistance to Klimt's work for the Viennese Great Hall, the so-called "faculty paintings" that led to a mass protest by professors and led to his censure at a parliamentary level. Lavishly illustrated, balanced, and not afraid to delve deeply, Gottfried Fliedl has created a wonderful reference volume and inspiring, realistic view of an artist and his work. Klimt's work is so appealing because not only did he develop a unique way of presenting and creating images, he went above artistic representation and presented a philosophy that is still fascinating to explore.

I would have to say that this book is good in quality content, but not so in terms of the reproduced images.The images are a bit on the dull side, not so vibrant to the eye, honestly. But it's not terrible. It's still a nice book of information on Klimt and his paintings. I give this book 4/5 stars for images provided, mainly. But again, not terrible.It was still a good read but would recommend a different book if the image quality is that much important for you.

Everything about this transaction was easy and quick, my book got to me super fast and was packaged professionally and secure. Great seller and great products! Will definitely order from them again!

An easy book to read from cover to cover or to simply dip into. The paintings are reviewed chronologically revealing Klimt's development and influences as they occurred.One of the things I liked about this book, which I think more could learn from, is that plates from other parts of the book were (re)printed in a larger thumbnail under many of the reviews to illustrate a point, which might be a stylistic comparison, or trying to guess who a certain unidentified model was, or whatever. This technique not only saves time flipping through the pages to find the plate to see what the author is talking about, but also means the book is much more richly illustrated as a result.Very good value.

Over the years, I've only looked at Klimt from the edges - that is, I was aware only of the more popular poster images you couldn't help seeing here and there. But this book is a big revelation to me. Such genius! He is truly amazing, and I had no idea of the range of his thought or the depth of his talent. He was a superb draftsman, which enabled him to take risks with the figure because he knew exactly what he was doing.A well-designed book - a complete visual pleasure, and fire to the imagination.

the book is small, 8 x 10 - there is no fold out. the color reproductions, and even the black and white reproductions are muddy and indistinct - very disappointing. However, the written commentary and the photos are interesting and valuable. There are works illustrated that would like to see in a better presentation.So, this book gives you a hint at the beauty of these paintings, it's up to us to search out better reproductions.

Another reviewer wanted to see some gold, my 1994 copy of this 240 page book has, on the front cover, a detail from "Fulfilment, a pattern for the Stoclet Frieze", 1905-9, in tempera, watercolour, gold paint, silver-bronze, crayon, pencil, opaque white, gold leaf and silver leaf on paper. I can imagine some buying the book for this reason alone.This is another of the comparably inexpensive art books published by Taschen that marry the highest standards of presentation and colour reproduction with an authoritative text, by Gottfried Fliedl, and an excellent translation by Hugh Beyer. There are well over 250 illustrations, mostly in colour and many full-page colour plates, as well as a number of photographsFliedl's approach in this book is to begin with two illustrated essays that set the scene: Introduction - `Klimt's Popularity', and `Klimt's Fame', next is `Klimt's Vienna - Then and Now', a series of photographs of Vienna that are not just interesting but provide a visual context for this most Viennese of artists. The author then embarks on a chronological journey from the artist's training, through the formation and break-up of the Secession to his late works. There is an illustrated Chronology and a Bibliography. Fliedl's journey is presented in 22 short sequences/chapters; this may be too `bitty' for some readers but it does make it is easy to stop at the end of a `chapter' and carry on later. An earlier 4* reviewer has commented that this approach allows the reader to `follow the evolution of the artist's style through these [reproductions]: from early highly proficient drawings and neo-classically styled paintings to his mature style in which he relishes surface texture and the female form', and I would concur.Klimt's history, the history about the Secession and, indeed, the history of fin-de-siècle Vienna is one of the tension between the radicals and the conservatives. An art history that takes a narrow art historical approach was once acceptable, but today the artist's life and work must be put into a wider social, political and economic context. For this reason I prefer to read several books or exhibition catalogues each of which offers an unique picture (pun not intended) of the artist and, by putting these together, I hope to arrive at a personal overall critique. In fairness to the author, he does quote liberally from other art critics and scholars, and of course we are reading him from a distance of two decades.In a chapter entitled `I'm not particularly interesting' Fliedl points out the double difficulty for those delving into the artist's life and art. `There are a large number of highly elaborate legends [that are] matched by very few and indeed rather shaky facts'. According to those who knew him, he was taciturn, bourgeois, found difficulty with the every day activities of life and hated any disruption to his routine. In today's world where so much `information' is available through so many channels and where so little of it is soundly based, this must be the frustration of every biographer. Paradoxically, it also means that there might just be a bundle of letters and papers addressing private and professional matters, gathering a century's dust and waiting to be found in time for the centenary of the artist's death in 2018.The chapter on "The Kiss", 1907-8, which we will see much more of as 2018 approaches, examines its popularity. Klimt's use of gold may be a reason, but surely not the whole story. Do we, as males and females, identify with the couple? And if so, how? As Fliedl points out the figures are oblivious of one another and Klimt's couples rarely communicate any affection, rather they adopt rigid poses or are lost in dream-like states. I do not understand `erotic' to be synonymous with `pornographic' and the male figure is certainly dominant, holding the female who is compliant and passive. Their sexuality and gender are unified, reconciled and neutralised within a [phallic] patterned, golden envelope. His patterns are angular, with black contrasting with the gold and grey, whilst hers are mostly rounded and softer. According to Fliedl the male is not a representation of the artist.The focus of the book is very much on the figure rather than on landscapes, its subtitle being 'The World in Female Form'; `Early Landscapes' has 6 coloured reproductions, 1898-1903, with no text, whilst `Landscapes', which includes text, has 15 coloured reproductions, 1905-c. 1916. A quarter of Klimt's paintings, but very few drawings, are landscapes and these need to be considered in much greater depth and breadth than is possible here. However, as a whole, this book is highly recommended.

There is obviously more to the man than one famous painting and this book sets out the life and works of Klimt in enough detail to provide readers with a glimpse of an intriguing man. The colour plates cannot quite convey the glitter of his art work but that is a limitation of the reproduction process. Excellent value for money and even includes a timeline of his life at the end of the book.

I bought this basic guide as I am off to Vienna next week for a few days where there is a large Klimt Exhibition to commemorate 150 years since his birth. The book is well presented, the colour is true to life, and the text is informative of his work and his influences. I would have liked a little more about his personal life, but for that, of course, I guess I need to read a biography. There is also no index, although there is a good list of the work covered in the book. Good value, I'd recommend it as a starter volume.

Reproduction of artwork was excellent as was the text. Looking forward to more of other artists. You get a real insight into the different phases of Klimts work.

Wonderful book. Amazing value for such good quality issue.