Klimt

Juxtaposing rough language and rough living, with over indulgent ideals of what is beautiful in art, is one way that Gustav Klimt can be described.  He was quite simply a contradiction; a strange sort of man, with rigid concepts and a temperament that found brutal honesty and impolite criticism his various breads and various butters in life. 

He lived in Vienna Austria at a time when notions of modernity were being fiercely debated.  Many saw modern art as a vehicle to properly explore for the first time, the uglier side of life--the baser things, that previously, in "polite society" you just didn't do.  Others, like Klimt (like some in the world of music composition) thought updating beauty in art was the only proper course for art in the modern age; albeit with a lot of nudity.  He shocked, but not for reasons of truth or horror--but because he he painted with egotistical notions of seeking reaction (he often criticized people to their faces just to see how they would take it--not because he really meant it).    

Klimt died in 1918, having lived just long enough to witness the horrors of World World I.  The beginnings of what would become Nazi Germany had already begun, even before the "Great War."  What spooks me, watching a film about art, that many would argue shouldn't be on a horror blog at all, is that these evil elements were swirling about in Klimt's world, and he chose to ignore them.  Then, when "good men do nothing," we get the terrors of two world wars and the near extermination of two races of people in Europe.  That is scary!!  The movie does a good job of conveying that in a really quiet, understated way--it is a kind of creeping menace.  

Many do not like the film, I'm on the fence about that.  Malkovich's seems (like he seems to do most of the time) to be playing himself, but then again, I do not share the opinion of many of my fellow bloggers that the film is totally devoid of merit.  Anyway, here are some images.

Photo of Gustav Klimt

Klimt Self Portrait 1913