From "Tradition" To "Modern"

In the history of the art of the world from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century, not many art work receive as many diverse and dramatic review as that of Gustav Klimt."He was an famous iconic figure in the art society of Austria at one time"①.In the meantime, he was well-accepted internationally as "the greatest Austrian artist in that era".Though being in the same era, this unique art maestro is different from either Paul Cezanne or Was sily Kandinsky, not to mention Picasso.If the works of the aforementioned three maestro are the representatives of the essence of modernism, then Klimt’s work can by no means by described by modernism In the ancient endeavor of transiting from" conventionalism, or "naturalistic way of painting",to "modernism",or"symbolistic way of decorative compositing",he had been trying to find a perfect conjunction point between the two, upon which he can extend to accomplish his artistic dream. Klimt emphasizes the originality of art. His painting style has strong sense of form. He applied the highly decorative symbolic language into painting, achieving an extremely unique art sryle.Starting from craft art, developed in decorative art and finally focused on painting, this maestro is a great subject to study and learn from.This article gives an chronological in depth analysis of Klimt’s works, particularly the development and evolution of his artistic thinking and painting style, based on the decorative language in his painting.Part one: Early lifePart two:The four periods of Klimt’s art career,divided based on the social and histological background of the specific period.Part three: By analyzing the the color, curvature, form, material and the relationship between "naturalistic way of painting" and"symbolistic way of decorative compositing" in the representative works of each period, analyze the characteristics and the evolution of style of Klimt’s work.Part four: The influence of Klimt’s artistic thinking and painting style on the later generations and the writer in her creative process during master’s degree.