Landscape: Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest, 1903

 I discovered Gustav Klimt's landscapes about 10 years ago. I had always associated him with images like "The Kiss", and I love to use his figurative paintings in Design class as examples of rhythm and repetition. I don't like every single work of his, but I enjoy a lot of them, and I think his landscapes and his drawings are probably my favorites of his work. 

What really strikes me about his work is how he plays with space by balancing pattern and shape in a way that is flat and spacious. It floats right in front of your face, yet somehow doesn't feel shallow.

Gustav Klimt

 It amazes me how it can seem so airy and so dense at the same time. 

Gustav Klimt, Farmhouse With Birches

He often places the horizon high or low on the picture plane, which immediately challenges our perception of landscape. The birch trees function like lines connecting the foreground to the rest of the image and to the edge of the picture plane. The grass and stalks in the foreground are echoed by the smaller trees in the background.  It's really a beautifully composed image that asserts both its flatness and it's depth

April Gornik, Light in the Woods, 2011 See more at www.aprilgornik.com

When I saw April Gornik's show at Danese this fall, I was reminded of the Klimt painting at the top of the page. Other than subject similarities, they are very different, except in one really important way. Both embody a kind of stillness---like that quiet moment in the forest when you step on a twig and it snaps with a deafening roar. But Gornik's painting is about being able to step into the painting, while Klimt keeps you at outside with a fence made of patterned strokes.