Art work

This was the view from the Sainsbury's queue this morning - a boat owner, hard at work.

First listen today was to Joanne Shaw Taylor's album The Dirty Truth on which my favourite track was the title song.

I have slightly changed tack on my course of study of 20th century painting, paying less attention to a very academic and theoretical book and instead focussing each day on a different artist or movement, roughly in chronological order. Today, it was the Viennese Secessionists.  Artists like Olgar Kokosschka, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt started the movement in 1897, which was closely related to Art Nouveau or, in German, Jugendstil.  Their building in Vienna is a highly ornate gallery, focussed on their movement.

Gustav Klimt is best known for his portraits of women and men, most famously The Kiss, one of the most reproduced paintings of the century.  I have seen that one a number of times on visits to Vienna.  

Less well-known is another richly decorated and highly stylish full length portrait of his sister-in-law Emilie Floege (1902).  She stands in a extravagantly colourful, abstract-patterned dress with strange wing-like features. The background is neutral but highly coloured. Only her head and hands are visible.  Her head is at the very top of a tall canvass but the view is drawn to her tender expression.