Klimt and Biedermeier

Gustav Klimt and the Biedermeier style had a profound affect on art of the 20th centuries in Vienna and beyond. Gustav Klimt straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and is categorized both as a Symbolist artist as well as a Secessionist artist. Klimt's primary subject matter was the female figure and his works have an obvious eroticism. It is not often that one gets to see his mural projects as many no longer exist or have been removed from their original context. The MAK (Museum of Applied Art) has work of both Klimt and a whole gallery devoted to Biedermeier style.

The Biedermeier style appears in furniture and decorative arts. It spans the first half of the 19th century, a time when the middle class in Vienna was expanding and political stability made an interest in beautiful and unique objects worthy of acquiring. A gallery at the MAK devoted to Biedermeier style included contemporary work by Jenny Holzer for a most informative exhibition.

Gustav Klimt, Nine Drawings for the Execution of a Frieze for the Dining Room of Stoclet House in Brussels, 1910, chalk, graphite, gouache, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, transparent paper, draft paper. The next few images are details of these drawings.

The dining room as it looks today (image from internet, did not go there)

Entrance to the Biedermeier gallery was quite dramatic with the real chairs behind the screen.

Examples of the chairs in the center and the video stream by Jenny Holzer just below the ceiling. Jenny Holzer is an American installation artist whose primary focus is on language and its relationship to political events and social issues. This particular continuously running feed consists of stories of middle class Austrians and their lives during the period of the Biedermeier style.

Detail featuring furniture of all kinds and the Jenny Holzer video projection.

Jenny Holzer concrete couch in Biedermeier style to be used as a viewing platform.