Art Is A Line Around Your Thoughts, The Art Nouveau Visionary And Austrian Symbolist Painter Gustav Klimt And Lifeball, The Annual AIDS Charity Event In Vienna

I continue my series to introduce the best things about Vienna, mostly for my airbnb guests who appreciate my tips about the unique things you can discover in the cosmopolitan Austrian capital city.

Gustav Klimt is one of many talented and famous Austrians, everybody should know about as well as the yearly fabulous charity event called "Lifeball". The lifeball raised over 1.55 million Euros in 2017!

There is always hope, as long as the canvas is empty - Gustav Klimt 

I discovered an article by Jessica Bush about Inge Prader, a photographer who brought Klimt’s paintings to life with real models at the life ball, the year 2015 was Viennese Sessionist-themed.

Images by Inge Prader, The Viennese photographer brought the painted personages of Gustav Klimt to life. - Source......re-created "Beethoven frieze"

Why Do I mention Klimt and the stunning scenes of this event?

Viennese photographer Prader showed a new perspective on some of the most famous paintings of our time. 

Photo by Inge Prader who re-created the impression of the Vienna Secession - Source 

Re-creation of klimt’s "death and life"image at lifeball by inge prader

I hope you find this as fascinating as I did. 

Photograph from lifeball 2015

The Original - Image source 

I experienced the last lifeball 2017 very closely through two of my friends who worked as hosts for some celebrities. It was too late to purchase tickets for myself, so I watched the exciting scenes on TV and through photos my friends sent to me. 

Screenshot from TV 

Next time I will attend because its really one of those internationally recognised and tasteful happenings, to help raising awareness for HIV/AIDS patients worldwide.  

The tree of life - original by Gustam Klimt

Who is Gustav Klimt? 

Image via Leopold Museum / Moritz Nähr, Gustav Klimt with cat, 1912. © IMAGNO/Austrian Archives

Image Source and book 

Gustav Klimt once said about himself : 

“I can paint and draw. There is no self-portrait of myself. I am not interested in my own person, more in other people, females. I paint day by day from morning to night – figurative paintings and landscapes, less often portraits. Already when I should write a simple letter I get frightened like of imminent seasickness. Those who want to know more about me shall observingly regard my paintings, and try to realize who I am and what I want.“

Image Source 

GUSTAV KLIMT died in Vienna of pneumonia on Feb 6th, 1918.

Gustav Klimt (1862- 1918) is the greatest and most impressive person of the Austrian art at around 1900. Coming from modest circumstances, Klimt studied at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule where his talent for drawing was soon discovered. Therefore he got a number of public contracts together with his brother Ernst und his university friend Franz Matsch. The panaches at the Kunsthistorisches Museum and the great paintings at the staircase of the Burgtheater testify the technical perfection of this young „Künstler-Compagnie“. However these works were entirely committed to Viennese historicism. During the 1890s Klimt was looking for different means of expression and finally founded the Secession in 1897 with other like-minded artists. Klimt was the first president of the Vienna Secession. The culmination of this development were the University of Vienna ceiling paintings that burned in 1945 in a mansion in Lower Austria. - Source 

The painting “Death and Life”

Visit the Leopold Museum at the Museums Quartier U2 MuseumsQuartier, U3 Volkstheater

The Leopold Museum presents these major works by Klimt for the first time as black and white photographs in the original size. The radical depiction of his personal view of the world was too pessimist for the professors at the University of Vienna and led to a huge scandal at the time. As a reaction Klimt decided never to accept any public contract again and focused on the creation of lyric landscape paintings that he painted during his summer visits together with the Flöge family to the Attersee region in Upper Austria. - Source 

Klimt was the founder of the Vienna Secession art movement

The Vienna Secession built by Joseph Olbrich - An Artist Movement! 

Kaffeehaus Culture - The Viennese Coffee House , An Intangible Cultural Heritage And The Secession, An Artist Movement!

Enjoy the movie 

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