Sonja Knips
Margaret (Long-name) Wittgenstein
Klimt is a crazy, fantastic madman when it comes to color. Even his whites aren't white. You can look at any particular part of the painting and say, "that's green, that's white, that's light flesh-toned" but if you isolate the area the colors are actually quite vibrant and unexpected, especially in his later work (for example, second painting, look at the colors under her skin).
The first image shows a really excellent example of something that came up several times in today's class. Look at the negative shapes created by the figure's torso and arms. They manage to accomplish two seemingly contradictory things: they help to create a sense of air in the painting (your eye can weave itself in and out and around the forms) and they help to unite the figure and the ground, calling attention to the picture plane and reminding us of the essential flatness of the image.
ReplyDeleteHere's a couple questions to consider: What other factors help to unite the figure and the background? How does Klimt unite the figure and the background in the second image?