Neue-Fangled Approach to Gustav Klimt's Art Leaves Something to Be Desired

The beauty of living in New York is that you can walk into a museum and suddenly be in the presence of a painting worth $135 million. In this case, that painting is the Portrait of Adele Block Bauer by Gustav Klimt, and is on display at the Neue Galerie.

The portrait was purchased by the museum about a year ago along with a series of Klimt’s other pieces that reveal the prolific nature of his work. The museum’s current exhibition features many of Klimt’s paintings and—perhaps more intriguing—a profusion of his sketches, including a series of nude women in scandalous poses. Klimt’s work was not only unconventional for its time (the late 19th century), but is also still eye-catching today. Indeed, the exhibition reveals Klimt’s position as an iconoclast who sought to push the boundaries of art.

Klimt’s work is striking in its collage-like manipulation of the real. For instance, in the much buzzed about portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, Klimt adorns his subject with a magnificent golden robe composed like a mural of circles, Egyptian eyes, triangles, and wave-like swirls in various shades of gold, blue, grey, and white. The robe appears to flow like a shimmering waterfall down the figure’s body.

Paintings such as The Dancer are striking—many small shapes and blocks of color give little more than an impression of the figure’s shawl and the background in contrast to the solid and naturalistic renderings of the figures themselves. In addition to these works, visitors can see the origins of Klimt’s evanescent, surreal aesthetics in his sketches.

Though the paintings seem to be the main focus, the exhibit also makes a clear attempt to incorporate historical facts about the artist’s life and work. In fact, the exhibition places such emphasis on the artistic process that Klimt’s actual smock is placed on view, in addition to several photographs of his studio and even a small room modeled to replicate one of the rooms in his studio.

By presenting his smock, studio, and receiving room, the Neue Galerie seems committed to revealing the ins and outs of Klimt’s daily life as an artist. But such focus begs the question: is it just as necessary to know about the artist himself and the circumstances of the way his work was produced as it is to become intimately acquainted with the work itself? The Neue Galerie evidently feels that it is important to celebrate the details of the artist’s life. But does this preoccupation really add to our reception of his work? Perhaps the curators should step back and allow the paintings to speak for themselves.

Indeed, there are definitive moments when the exhibit seems to salute the artist more than his work. On the second floor of the exhibition, one of Klimt’s most interesting paintings, Hope II, is placed on the back corner of the remodel of his studio. The viewer is unable to get closer than 10 feet to this piece. The painting depicts a pregnant woman with her head bent as if in mourning, hiding the bottom half of her full white stomach with a red scarf emblazoned with circles. Three other female faces are painted at the bottom, heads also bent sadly, suggesting a connection between grief and the isolation felt in pregnancy and presenting a sharp contrast to the conventional one-dimensional celebration of childbirth. This painting, though obstructed by the remodeled room, is exemplary of Klimt’s avant-garde style and impressive skill. It is clear that the viewer does not need to know what Klimt’s smock looked like in order to appreciate the imaginative collages he constructs with his paintbrush.

The Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue. Exhibition on view through June 30.