Gustav Klimt: Tree of Life

Gustav Klimt: Kiss

Gustav Klimt: Kiss II

The Atman Art of Gustav Klimt 1862-1918

Far more than any other artist of recent History, Gustav Klimt was to Art what Mozart, Elvis... and Chet Atkins together were to Music. 

 Just like Mozart, Elvis, and Chet Atkins influenced most every musician and composer that followed so too Gustav Klimt influenced every artist and especially all the Illustrators that knew his paintings way before the pundits of art knew who he was. 

Just like Robert Fawcett, Harold von Schmidt, John Atherton and Norman Adams, Gustav Klimt lived his whole life for the “Creativity that was its own Reward,” Atman Art.

His artistic versatility appears limitless. There were few avenues of artistic expression that he did not eagerly explore. And then in every avenue he was as creative, if not more so, than anyone else. Versatility was his game, from the ancient to the far-east art of China, and India to the Byzantine art. And then he also either explored or set the stage for everything that was contemporary to his time. He was so creative in what he painted that he would set much of the stage for most of the styles that Illustrators as a whole would end up taking to new levels.

 It seems that wherever his creativity took him Illustrators would follow to pick up the ball and make a career out of what Gustav Klimt gave them. He was not an “Illustrator.” But he was as good as, and certainly more versatile an artist than any of the twelve Famous Artists. 

As a group these Famous Artists were far more famous and successful and wealthy than any group of artists ever, even Gustav Klimt. It is very unlikely that Gustav made the money at his art as did these Famous Artists, who were making over $90,000 per year (about $450,000 today) doing their art. But none of these Famous Artists were the Atman machine like Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt lived and breathed for his Creativity that was its own Reward.. There are only a few artists, like Norman Adams, who have the broad versatility in art like Gustav Klimt had.

That one artist could have such a phenomenal influence on nearly all Illustrators, even decades after his death, says a lot more for Gustav Klimt than probably any other artist. Without the publishing industry pushing his images the Public was not the direct measure of Gustav Klimt's Creativity. However, the Public measured the creativity of all the illustrators who Klimt most obviously influenced.

If it were not for the Illustrators who discovered the phenomenal creativity of Gustav Klimt, and then took his creativity to new levels, the public might still not know about him any more than the public knew anything about J.S Bach, until Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin discovered him hundreds of years after his death.

If, more than anyone else, Gustav Klimt influenced the Illustrators that would collectively become the most famous, wealthy and successful group of professionals the world has ever seen ... then it is only because he was in turn influenced by the erotic drawings of Marquis von Bayros. They lived at the same time, and it is difficult to determine whose creativity came first, but when it comes to design and the use of patterns von Bayros seems to be the master and Klimt the student. 

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If Klimt’s paintings do not unmask the same Reward-inside in us that it gave him, then his story should. Exactly like Norman Adams, and most of the successful Illustrators, Gustav Klimt had no ego to mask his Creativity. His only meaning/reward in life was his creativity, and nothing in the outside, Ego, seemed to matter to him compared to this addiction to create, for its own Reward.  The few words he used to tell us about himself tells us his  no-ego story.

Gustav Klimt:

 "I can paint and draw. I believe as much myself and others also say they believe it. But I am not sure that it is true. Only two things are certain:

“1. I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women. But other subjects interest me even more. I am convinced that I am not particularly interesting as a person. There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day from morning until night. Figures and landscapes, portraits less often.

“2. I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Even when I have a simple letter to write I am filled with fear and trembling as though on the verge of being sea-sick. For this reason people must do without an artistic or literary self-portrait. And this should not be regretted. Whoever wants to know something about me--as an artist, the only notable thing--ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do."

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Just like Mozart set the stage for Beethoven, and the Negro Blues, Gospel and Soul music set the stage for Elvis, so too Gustav Klimt set the stage for Illustrators to give the world Atman's Big Bang.

Geza Palotas

Gustav Klimt: Death and Life

Gustav Klimt: Mother and Child

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