Saturday is Caturday! Gustav Klimt Artist, Cat Lover and his Art. Bring photos, memes, videos or anything feline related

By MFleurette September 16, 2023

I thought it would be fun to honor our feline friends on Caturday. The pups can't have all the fun on Sundays. This is a work in progress, so any feedback is welcome. What would you like to see here? I do write articles about pup lovers, but this one will have photos, clips, celebrities with cats, art, and sometimes a profile about cat lovers. Right now, it will be twice a month, biweekly, unless I find I can write something quickly. I am a fast writer, but time isn't always on my side.

Today, I am posting some art by Gustav Klimt(July 14, 1862-February 6, 1918) because he loved cats and had about 8 of them in his studio. Gustav is associated with the Vienna Secession movement that broke away from the accepted movements at that time because they felt they were limiting and forcing artists to follow accepted schools if they wanted to be successful and gain attention. It was the birth of Modern Art in Austria, a very conservative and traditional country at that time. Led by Klimt, they set up shop in Vienna and started the Vienna Secession. The movement also extended into literature, design, intellectualism, fashion, and architecture and inspired progressive ideas in other areas of Austria's cultural landscape. They were like the punk kids of the 70s who reacted to British political policies, classism, and lack of opportunities and, like Vienna, rather traditional and staid at that time.

Their styles are closely associated with Art Nouveau but uniquely expressed by each artist with their personal interpretation of the aesthetics. Yet, the works had a theme and cohesiveness that dominated the movement in the early years. Eventually, the Vienna Secession became two factions of the movement, one more commercially inclined and the other, like Gustav, purists. Klimt broke away as his dissatisfaction with the direction it was going became more than he could stomach and left with a handful of other artists,

. His art commands some of the highest prices in the art world, and his legacy lives on. Not bad for a boy born in poverty who became an international art star. Japanese art inspired him heavily, and some artists from other movements, including Impressionism, found inspiration from the simplicity of the subject matter. It was referred to as Japonisme or Japanesque, and you see the elements in his compositions, use of colors, and style. I will post a Japanese print so you can see what I mean by that. Some critics thought his paintings were too erotic, especially those featuring his life partner, the fascinating, progressive Emilie Louise Flöge, who designed clothes meant to be worn without corsets. While women were torturing their bodies in the wasp waste era, she rejected them.

In 1918 he died as a result of illnesses related to the Spanish Influenza pandemic.

The first piece is from Tosa Mitsuoki, c.1670.