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Liverpool aglow with Gustav Klimt

29/05/2008

Described as ‘pornographic’ a hundred years ago, Gustav Klimt’s work continues to attract headlines, most recently for setting new price records at auction.

Now, to celebrate 2008 as European Capital of Culture, Tate Liverpool has amassed a brilliant collection of canvas art from the painter covering pieces from all stages of his career.

Klimt is one of the world’s most revered artists. His ‘Apple Tree’ painting fetched approximately £15m in 2006 while a 1903 piece entitled ‘Birch Forest’ sold for more than £20m.

His most famous works utilize gold leaf and Byzantine imagery.

The contemporary art show ‘Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900’ opens Friday at the Albert Dock and runs through to August 31.

While in Liverpool, it’s worth checking out another modern art gallery, the newly renovated Bluecoat, a 15-minute walk from the Tate.

The ‘Variable Capital Exhibition’ features work by more than a dozen artists, including Andy Warhol, themed around consumerism.
Bluecoat curator Sara Parsons says of the show: “The fascination with consumerism and popular culture has a long history within art, much of it celebrating our desire to buy and the enticing design qualities of goods.

“However, the artists in Variable Capital look beyond the seductive allure of the commodity, to address the human experience and costs underpinning such cultures of excess.”

Highlights include the fine art photography of Canada’s Edward Burtynsky, who received international acclaim for his depictions of global industrial landscapes, and works by the Spanish artist Santiego Sierra.

Sierra provoked controversy a few years back with his installation ‘245 cubic meters’, a gas chamber created inside a former synagogue in Pulheim, Germany.

The exhibition runs until June 29.