Quiet Beauty

The good news out of New York is the Neue Galerie is hosting a Gustav Klimt show though June.

If you can take it in you will not be disappointed for your effort to go into “the big bad city”.

(OK maybe not as exciting as Jet Li and Jackie Chan in the same movie but in this world we need to sometimes seek out quiet beauty in order to renew the spirit.)

Klimt was one of only a few artists that captured the transcendent strength and beauty of authentic femininity. Just compare this mother and child with the dripping sentimentality of Mary Casset’s work, the predatory sexuality of Picasso’s women, the aloof elegance that Modigliani gives us or the party girls of Lautrec. Klimt loved women, and loved the idea of woman. He gives us the same tenderness in his portrayals of old women and those in their prime.

Through the symbolism of women he worked out his biggest spiritual battle - the question and meaning of death. His conclusion was that life was monumental and at the same time as delicate and fragile as the wings of a butterfly. He saw it is only in women that this paradox is at balance.