I chose to feature Gustav Klimt's painting, "The Tree of Life," which was painted in 1909. You can find many pictures of it and other beautiful paintings of Klimt through a Google search, which is what I did.
What I find interesting about this piece is the mix of geometric and sharp, straight lines against the background of the tree, which is made of multiple geometric swirls of all different sizes. This shows the influence of the Glasgow style of the era: geometric, somewhat of an ethereal sense overall, as well as bold simple lines and flat planes of color in some of the geometric shapes. While it looks like there is a lot going on, the white background behind all the swirls creates a lighter, textured pattern that doesn't interfere with the very detailed human figures or ground from which they arise. The contrast in styles between the geometric ground and figures and the more organic tree also points to the symbolic imagery that was beginning to show in art and design at the beginning of 20th century design.
There is so much going on in such a small relative space. It's hard to break the 'human' figures away from the pattern of the tree and actually see what they look like.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some interesting points. At first, I didn't realize they were people; I thought they were mountains or something. It is interesting to see the contrasting designs working together. Overall I feel it is very chaotic and overdone that some of the simple detail is lost. Interesting find.
ReplyDeleteThis image is so busy that its almost painful to my eyes. It is a little abstract in the way the curvy lines intersect with the squares and triangles. Also, the colors that were chosen in this piece are really hard to distinguish towards the left and the right of the image.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting part of this piece is if you look at the top of those two "mountains" on the left and right. There are women at the top of them that are looking towards each other. You can only see their face and the top part of their body though. Interesting to incorporate women into a piece like this.