This is Death and Life by Gustav Klimt, completed in 1915 after 7 years, it might perhaps be the perfect representation of Klimt's artistry and why over 100 years later, we're still struck by its magnificence.
Klimt was a deeply private character who chose to speak through his work rather than his voice, stating "Whoever wants to know something about me— as an artist, the only notable thing—ought to look carefully at my pictures and try to see in them what I am and what I want to do." His visual style is so strong, so full of expressive colours, movements swirling and spiralling, that it hides the strange compositions from which it is conceived.
It helps to convey Klimt's very raw and heavy themes, often eroticizing topics of death, love, and intimacy.
The canvases are beautiful to look at, but what's more is they are felt gracefully by our eyes and within our hearts.
It's like we know we should feel a sentiment of sadness but Klimt doesn't afford us the opportunity for even a split second.
He presents burdened topics, but dares you to enjoy them instead.
His contemporaries at the time touched on the topics of death too.
Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele created visions of death in their own styles, often represented grimly.
Its touch ever-impending and unavoidable.
Klimt, however, painted death with a more uplifting vision.
