Artist Gustav Klimt Honored With Google Doodle
Were he alive today, Austrian artist Gustav Klimt would have been 150, and now thanks go Google, a lot more people know who he is.
Certainly well known by those interested in art, The Guardian newspaper noted that those visiting Google saw a Google Doodle using Klimt’s famous work, “The Kiss,” with the two figures of the work covering the second g and the l.
The Guardian notes that Klimt was the type to stir controversy for his celebration of sex and sexuality. In fact, the paper also notes his works were being made around the same time a fellow Austrian, Sigmund Freud, was bringing the topic of sex and sexuality into the mainstream. Today Klimt’s works are among the world’s most expensive. “The Kiss” is his most famous painting.
NDTV reports that “The Kiss” was painted between 1907-08 and is composed of conventional oil paint with applied layers of gold leaf. “The Kiss” is exhibited in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere palace, Vienna,
Klimt was a leader of the Secession movement, a group of Viennese artists who challenged traditional Austrian painting, and he was also one for marketing, doing in depth recreations of his own works.
Kilmt was born July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, not far from Vienna, where he would have the most influence. His father was a gold engraver, which may have inspire Klimt’s work with gold leaf, as seen in “The Kiss.” According to The Guardian, Klimt was believed to be the father of 14 illegitimate children, and he died from a stroke after contracting Spanish flu during the 1918 pandemic.
