Artists - Part 97

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter whose work helped define the Art Nouveau style.  We see him above with his cat, wearing his customary robe that he wore commando style with nothing underneath.

His primary subject was the female body, including many female nudes, which we will not show here.  Some of his work was criticized as pornographic.  He produced several drawings of nude females masturbating.

But he also painted and drew nude men, like this drawing Sitting Male Nude, 1879, above.

Male Nude with Left Foot on a Pedestal, 1879.

Reclining Male Nude, 1880.

Some of his paintings also featured male nudes.  In Idylle, 1884, not much is showing ...

but Male Nude, 1883 doesn't hide anything.

In 1910, architect Adolf Loos gave a lecture that was published in 1913 as Ornament and Crime, in which he accused Klimt and the whole Art Nouveau movement of "erotic pollution."

We end with Klimt's amused response, a sketch called Self-Portrait as Genitalia.