8 Ways To Make Your Home More Glamorous With Wall Art In Gold
The color gold is a symbol of success, luxury, accomplishment, triumph, royalty, and wealth. Gold-inspired wall art is an excellent way of decorating your empty walls.
The color gold, with its warm, strong undertones, harnesses masculine energy and the sun's power.
Gustav Klimt's name is synonymous with gold paintings. These wall arts were all created during Klimt's so-called "Golden Phase."
1. Danae (1908) by Gustav Klimt
Klimt often mixed the styles of Symbolism and Art Deco; however, with Danae, he also threw Greek mythology in the mix. According to the legend, Danae was a princess that Zeus fell in love with, and to seduce her, he orchestrated a rain of gold, and in true Klimt fashion, he made Danae nude. So if one painting were to describe the style of Klimt perfectly, it would be this one with; symbolism, art deco, nudity, and gold. Simply a recipe for perfection.
2. Goldfish (1901) by Gustav Klimt
Goldfish (1901) by Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was never afraid of stirring up some emotions with his provocative art, and Goldfish is perhaps the perfect of his complete disregard for conservative opinions. Goldfish was created as a response to his critics who thought his art was too vulgar; the original painting of the name was ''To my Detractors,'' but perhaps Klimt thought a nude woman showing her bottom while turning and smiling was enough of a provocation.
3. Hygieia (1907) by Gustav Klimt
Hygieia (1907) by Gustav Klimt
Klimt made a name for himself by painting murals in public buildings, and in 1984 he was selected to paint three murals for the University of Vienna, for medicine, philosophy, and the law department. When he finished his murals, he was condemned and rejected by the University as they thought his works were nothing but perverted.
However, during the second world war, all three murals were bombed and destroyed, and the only trace of the work left was a photograph of the medicine mural, the one you can see here.
4. Pallas Athena (1898) by Gustav Klimt
Pallas Athena (1898) by Gustav Klimt
Usually, when Klimt depicts characters from Greek Mythology or biblical tales, the artwork tends to focus on their sexuality, and the subject is nude. However, with Athena, his focus is on her power, posture, and incredible stature. He highlights these features in combination with his classical and very typical use of Klimt gold as a symbol in the form of the swords, giving us a rather unusual depiction of a mythological figure in Klimt standards.
5. Judith II (1909) by Gustav Klimt
Judith II (1909) by Gustav Klimt
For an artist constantly criticized for being perverted and creating inappropriate paintings, Klimt loved painting biblical themes with his artistic twist on them. Judith is an old biblical story of a Jewish woman who used her beauty and appearance to seduce an Assyrian general, only to behead him to protect the Jewish people and free them from his oppression.
Judith is perhaps the original femme fatale character that used her seductive looks to lure men in close only to kill them because, with the femme fatale, the danger is always luring behind the beauty.
6. Nuda Veritas (1899) by Gustav Klimt
Nuda Veritas (1899) by Gustav Klimt
The text at the top of the painting translates to ''If you cannot please everyone with your actions and art, you should satisfy a few. To please many is dangerous.'' this rather harsh and critical text is accompanied by a naked woman with a mirror, inviting us to scrutinize ourselves and to explore our naked truth or ''Nuda Veritas.''
7. Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901) by Gustav Klimt
Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901) by Gustav Klimt
For an artist constantly criticized for being perverted and creating inappropriate paintings, Klimt loved painting biblical themes with his artistic twist on them. Judith is an old biblical story of a Jewish woman who used her beauty and appearance to seduce an Assyrian general, only to behead him to protect the Jewish people and free them from his oppression.
Judith is perhaps the original femme fatale character that used her seductive looks to lure men in close only to kill them because, with the femme fatale, the danger is always luring behind the beauty.
8. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) by Gustav Klimt
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) by Gustav Klimt
The most recognizable and iconic work that Klimt ever produced from his golden period and his artistic career overall. Very much like the other portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, it was commissioned by her husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, and confiscated by the Nazis to be displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. Once the war was over, the museum refused to hand back the painting, so the niece of Ferdinand started a seven-year-long legal process to get the work back. Once she had possession of the work back, she sold it the same year for $135 million. At the time, it was the most expensive painting of all time.
