Today tour of the Leopold museum was fascinating. The Leopold museum was completed in September of 2001. It is located in the Museum quarter of Vienna. The museum has over 5,000 exhibits featuring artists like Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Richard Gerstl. The Museum contains the largest collection of Egon Schiele and also includes famous art work from Gustav Klimt. Most of the art in the Leopold Museum was collected by Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold. They collected the art work throughout their lives and finally decided it was time to convert their collection into a Museum.
Doctor O led the tour through the Leopold museum. Her tour was full of energy and information. She was energetic and easy to understand. I took so much away from her tour I wish she could be my tour guide all the time. Doctor O is very knowledgeable and it seemed like she knew everything about the pieces of art and art history. Doctor O focused mainly on two very important artists. The first was Gustav Klimt and the second was Egon Schiele.
Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten which is close to Vienna in 1862. He was the second child of seven grew up in poverty. Luckily for Klimt he was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts in 1876. By 1888 Klimt received the Golden order of Merit from Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria for helping paint the Burgtheater in Vienna. Klimt was a very talented artist and started to forge a new direction in art after a great fiasco in 1894 at the University of Vienna. He was commissioned to paint three paintings, one of philosophy, one of medicine and the last jurisprudence. These paintings were rejected because the citizens of Vienna thought they were too radical and almost pornographic. After this rejection Gustav Klimt went on to form his own movement called the Vienna Secession. He was the president of this group and he with the founding members declared the object of this group was to allow for free expression of art work and for a place to show case this new radical art. The secessionist building in Vienna is were Gustav Klimt and other radical artist showed their work. I personally like Gustav Klimt alot his artwork is very unique and thought provoking. This is probably one of Klimt more famous works. I personally love how he uses the different colors and the gold to show is message.
The Kiss:
The other artist that Doctor O covered was Egon Schiele. Schiele was born in Tulln and at an early age Schiele lost his father. On the urgings of his Uncle, Schiele applied for art school in Vienna and was excepted. After arriving in Vienna Schiele sought out Klimt and became his protege. Schiele’s paintings were known for there focus on death, sex and discovery. Schiele was obsessed with painting himself. Here is one example of his self portraits.
Self portrait:
I was sad that this was the last time we would see Doctor O. She was a great tour guide and I wish I could have taken an art history class or some type of class under her. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to hear her speak.
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