Wednesday 9 May 2012

Austrian Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life Expressionist Painting

Tree of Life captures our imagination in a way that few other iconic symbols have managed to do. There is also a great flexibility around the Tree of Life which means that it can, and has, been used in many different settings, crossing religious boundaries and recently entering into mainstrea art as well, as seen in the career of Austrian expressionist Gustav Klimt, for example.

Tree of Life
Celtic followers have long since used this symbol with in art and it has clear meaning which is retained even when used by other religions as well. In most cases, The Tree of Life is used to signify health and longevity and is something which will appeal to most because of this.

Celtic art has been popular for a long time for those who want to re-connect with their Celtic backgrounds and art from this period came in many different forms, with tapestries being fairly common during this relatively primitive time for art, long before the Renaissance took Europe by storm.

Klimt himself was an artist who saw the power of this symbol and decided to use it with in his own work. His elaborate version remains one of his most popular paintings from a long and highly distinguished career.

Klimt's advantage was that his style was bold and original, meaning the combination of the Tree of Life with his much loved approach to oil painting was always likely to give us something magical and highly memorable, which is exactly what happened. The qualities of this artist's contribution was in the swirling branches which match the mythical symbolism found with this imagery, and Klimt also used bright, gold paint and spread his scene across a large canvas which gives us an impressive final piece.

This painting is now amongst the most recognisable from his career, even when placed up against such exceptional competition. There have been several alternative versions of this work in recent years which have taken the original painting and cropped various areas of it in order to produce different shape pieces which may suit different locations, for those looking to buy copies of it for themselves.

There are endless numbers of firms now online offering all sorts of options with regards the original Tree of Life painting, so anyone can find just exactly what they are looking for. You may notice a great variety in the way in which religious artists have captured the Tree image, with only really the symbolism itself remaining constant throughout.

There are plenty of other significant symbols with in religions such as those under the Celtic umbrella, but this one remains one of the most commonly seen and important. Gustav Klimt paintings are well remembered for including great levels of detail with in both the background as well as the foreground.

The Kiss offers another example of that and the advantage of including detail right across the canvas is that the final result can be very attention grabbing. There is also a great longevity for those who place copies of these paintings in their own homes, as there is always something new to see with in the work which perhaps they had not noticed before.

Gustav Klimt was a respected sketcher who would harness these skills as a basis for each of his oil paintings, and he was particularly keen on portrait drawings which he would sometimes produce purely as a finished sketch, with no other use intended.

There are still many of these drawings which have remained intact and fans of that style of art often prefer them to his actual oil works. Sketch works always show the true technical talents of any artist. The amount of work left from Klimt's career has meant that some exhibitions can focus on individual aspects of it, rather than serving as a summary of his best work, as normally found.

With so many of his art works spread across different locations in the present day, it can be difficult to gather together his key paintings, such as The Tree of Life, all at the same time. Fortunately there are still exhibitions of his work and they remain amongst the most visited of all artists' exhibitions currently, with Klimt also remaining one of the most reproduced artists of all as well. We hope that you have found this Blogger post helpful, and you are welcome to link to it from your own website or blog if you wish to.

Our intention is purely to spread the word about the great artist Gustav Klimt as well as the iconic symbol of the Tree of Life which can be found in his career as well as in some religious art works, which are also well worth checking out when you next get the opportunity. The Tree of life is a wide topic, just by itself, and there are plenty of other resources available online which cover the various religious aspects of it's use and message.