Klimt was a man who broke the rules and was somewhat of a rebel in the art community. He moved away from the standards of the time and found a like group of people who would transform the world of art forever. And above all else, Klimt found a way to weave eroticism into all his works, either subtlety…or not so subtlety. Even today, his paintings stir something deep down inside of all us. Immersive Klimt takes the audience on a journey throughout the life of Gustav Klimt. To see his beginning, inspiration, fellow painters, and most importantly, the women who were his great muses!

Table Of Contents

1. How Much are Tickets?
2. How Long is the Show
3. Review of Immersive Klimt
   • Immersive Klimt Animations
4. Is It Worth It?
5. The Life and Art of Gustav Klimt
   • Klimt's Young Life
   • Viennese School of Arts and Crafts
   • The Golden Age of Vienna
   • University of Vienna's Great Hall
   • Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine
   • Founding the Vienna Secession
   • Nuda Veritas
   • Emilie Louise Flöge
   • Mermaids and Serpents
   • Water Serpents
   • Judith and the Head of Holofernes
   • Beethoven Frieze 1901
   • Love, Art and Music
   • The Ravenna Awakening
   • Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
   • The Tree of Life 1905
   • The Kiss
   • En Plein Air
   • Klimt's Death

How Much are Tickets?

Depending on where you see the show, the ticket prices may vary slightly. Currently, the show is on in Toronto, but in 2022 it plans on touring the USA. Tickets vary in price depending on the time and day of the week. Weekends and evenings are $45-$55 CAD per adult. But on weekday afternoons, tickets are only $35. So plan accordingly to save a bit of money!

How Long is the Show

The entire show lasts 35 minutes and is put on a loop. You are free to stay for as many loops of the show as you like. I usually advise blocking off about an hour to experience the show from different angles. It’s worth just sitting through the entire loop in one spot to take it all in. Then, for the second showing, walk around a bit. This way, you can see how the animations and projections change depending on your standing in the room.

Review of Immersive Klimt

Klimt went through so many different periods of his painting, and to see them all laid out together is an amazingly transformative experience. Over the years, Klimt’s popularity has become almost commercial. His paintings have graced dorm rooms as posters all over the world. His golden patterns find their way onto clothing and accessories. This mainstream accessibility is so surprising because during his lifetime he was deemed extremely controversial.

In 2020, the team behind Immersive Van Gogh created their newest exhibition, Immersive Klimt. Lighthouse Immersive describes the period in which Klimt was working as an artist as “the height of the artistic revolution in Vienna that preceded the fall of an empire: pulsing with bombastic energy and the collision of the traditional and the modern.”

That energy can be felt throughout the show. Unlike the other artists who have had immersive exhibitions based on their works (Van Gogh and Monet), Klimt’s work is imaginative, abstract and almost vibrating with passion. If you’ve never seen an immersive show before, the exhibition uses scans of the works of a certain artist and, using digital technology, animates and blends them together. These are then projected onto the walls of these wide-open spaces. While some people insultingly refer to these as nothing more than screensavers, I think it is an amazing opportunity to experience works of art together as one show that would never otherwise be able to be seen together. Either because they are spread out all over the world or some painting might even be held in private collections.

Immersive Klimt Animations

I found this show to be the most experimental in the animations the team uses to project Klimt’s work onto the exhibition space walls. At times it was suuuper trippy, and I heard more than one person mention that it made them feel like they were on drugs. The flashing lights at times felt like you were at a rave. I couldn’t help but feel this was how a contemporary audience could feel the same shock and awe that early 20th century audiences felt when they saw Klimt’s revolutionary work for the first time.

The penultimate painting, the Kiss, was projected along with videos of contemporary dancers. The dancers were nude, just as many of Klimt’s models, and danced to the sound of the music playing all around you. The group I went with were torn on this modern addition. But personally, I loved seeing it. It felt like real-life passion that the works of Klimt’s are trying to project.

Is It Worth It?

Immersive Klimt was the most fun of all the productions I have seen. The team behind the exhibit really seemed to let their imagination run wild. But like with all of these immersive shows, it lacks context. This one especially had almost no contextual information upon entering. Plus, throughout the show, they also project artworks by Egon Schiele, Koloman Moser and images from Ravenna Cathedral. It’s important to understand these aren’t part of Klimt’s oeuvre. The show does a great job of presenting a variety of Klimt’s artworks from the various periods of his life but just doesn’t do justice to the stories behind these paintings.

Klimt himself is such a compelling character whose life impacted and affected his works so much. Hopefully, this blog will act as a primer to your visit to the Immersive Klimt Experience and allow you to better understand the moving nature of these transcendent works of art.

The Life and Art of Gustav Klimt

Klimt’s Young Life

Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 in a small suburb of Baumgarten, southwest of Vienna. His father was Ernst Klimt, a gold engraver, and his mother, Anna, was an aspiring musical performer. Their household was filled with creative energy, and no doubt, Klimt was influenced by this from the day he was born. But the family of seven children was desperately poor. Their poverty constantly resulted in them having to move to search out cheaper housing. One of Gustav’s sisters died in 1874, and soon after, another of his siblings was sent to a sanitorium. After succumbing to religious fervour. The lack of medical treatment available to this impoverished family no doubt impacted their day-to-day lives.

Viennese School of Arts and Crafts

Despite all this, Ernst saw Gustav’s talent, as did his teachers. His father wanted to see Gustav succeed and escape the poverty his family was trapped in. So, in 1876 Gustav applied to enroll in the Viennese School of Arts and Crafts. He was only fourteen years old. And yet, he was a prodigy with skills far beyond his young age.

At school, he learned all the classical painting techniques. But they also taught their students how to work in other mediums. He also learned how to create mosaics, work with metals, and even mix paints. All of which he would incorporate into this artwork later in life. Gustav’s love of folklore, mythology, and Slavic history would be ignited in school. A theme that spread like wildfire throughout his artwork.

The Ringstrasse

Klimt had his first chance at practical experience working in the creation of the artistry of the Ringstrasse. In 1858, Emperor Franz Joseph wanted to destroy all the old medieval defensive walls around the city. With this new space, he wanted to create a new, vibrant outer ring of buildings that represented the new Vienna. He called this part of town the Ringstrasse (“ring street”) encircled the city. This was Vienna’s “Golden Age.” The Ringstrasse is the most popular loop for tourists to see all the best Viennese architecture even if you visit Vienna today.

The Golden Age of Vienna

During the Golden Age, research, science, and industry were all driven by modern advancements. And yet, the one aspect of culture which had yet to be redefined was art. And that was where Klimt saw his opportunity. Klimt and his brother Ernst started up a small painting business, and their first commission was to paint the grand stairway of the new Burgtheater. Klimt called the paintings in series the “Allegories and Emblems.”

Despite this being a hugely prestigious commission, the pay was dismal and wouldn’t even cover the price of models. So Klimt had to get friends and family to pose for the murals. Today, this is such a historical treat as we can still see Klimt’s sisters Hermine and Johanna’s faces set among the spectators in Shakespeare’s theatre. And Klimt’s brother Georg is even portrayed as the dying Romeo. Hidden in the audience is also the only surviving self-portrait of Gustav. Klimt never painted a self portrait so this is the only version of himself he ever made.

University of Vienna’s Great Hall

Despite the massive success of the Grand Staircases of the Vienna Burgtheater, Klimt was about to suffer one of the most significant blows of his life. In quick successions, both Klimt’s beloved father and brother suddenly died. Klimt suddenly was charged with financially taking care of his family. It was perhaps this onset of responsibility that drove him to become a successful artist. He poured all of his grief into his art, like many great artists before him.

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The first large commission he took after the death of his family members was at the University of Vienna’s Great Hall. But Klimt wasn’t going into this commission like the others he had done. Based on the classical compositions and techniques he learned in school. His grief has sent him spiralling to find a new form of painting. He began employing a radical style filled with decorative symbolism.

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Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine

The images he was set to paint were supposed to represent Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine. Yet, the university has difficulty reading any of his paintings expressing these subjects. Klimt’s grief and the loss left him jaded. In his depiction of Philosophy, he painted the great thinkers as just people who could not save man from despair. Jurisprudence only justifies violence and leaves the innocent vulnerable. 

Most importantly, Medicine could not save us from death. In addition to these controversial scenes, the women he portrayed in the scenes were all nude. The Medicine mural was deemed highly scandalous. The critics even referred to it as “pornographic.” The university sent these paintings to exhibitions in Paris to get more opinions before they were to have them installed. At the show, the judges were blown away by the decorative symbolism.

Despite winning the gold medal at the art exhibition, the university refused the paintings. Klimt was enraged. Klimt kept the images for himself and later displayed them in Vienna’s Museum of Modern Art. Sadly, the pictures were all lost in a great fire in 1945. The Nazis burnt many paintings they deemed too radical, and Klimt sadly fit right into that group. Today we have a few pictures of the works of art along with some aspects of the painting he incorporated into future paintings.

Founding the Vienna Secession

After the disappointment at the University, Klimt began to seek out other like-minded artists. Through this search, he left the Kunstlerhaus, Vienna’s association of artists. Leaving the group was a big deal. It was only through this association that most artists got their big commissions. But Klimt knew they preferred the more conservative work and wasn’t interested in bending to that style of work.

Instead, in 1897 he founded his own artist community, which he called the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession.) The Secession movement was the Austrian interpretation of Art Nouveau that sweeping other parts of Europe. Although there was no strict manifesto, as Klimt wanted to encourage all the artists to be as expressive and unique as possible, the art seemed to reflect naturalism, realism and symbolism.

Nuda Veritas

The Secession group included famed architect Josef Hoffmann, designer Koloman Moser, designer and architect Joseph Maria Olbrich, painters Max Kurzweil, and Art Nouveau prodigy Alphonse Mucha. The first real painting of Klimt that was at the forefront of the Secession movement was Nuda Veritas in 1899. The painting depicts a beautiful naked woman with flaming red hair. In her hand, she holds the mirror of truth towards the viewer. At the top of the frame is a quote by Friedrich Schiller in stylized lettering: “If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please only a few. To please many is bad.”

Emilie Louise Flöge

During the founding of the Vienna Secession, Klimt also started a lifelong partnership with Emilie Louise Flöge. Emilie’s sister Helene had been married to Gustav’s brother Ernst. When Ernst died, Gustav became Helene’s legal guardian and spent a lot of time with the entire Flöge family. Emilie and Gustav became constant companions but they never married. Their alternative romance was a shock to Viennese society. Still, it seemed in the same vein as everything else in Klimt’s life. Despite their atypical relationship, Klimt was known to use her as a model. She is immortalized in many of his most famous paintings.

It’s important to note that Emilie was an incredible fashion designer, and she had a very successful Viennese fashion house. She was not the typical muse who faded into the background, more than a pretty face. She was fiercely creative in her own right, and her fashions were miles ahead of their time! Much like the fashion revolution we are seeing today, her styles moved away from the male gaze. Her designs were also made in the spirit of freedom. She wanted to break away from the tight corsets and give these modern freethinking women dresses that were loose and yet also emphasized their femininity.

Mermaids and Serpents

The other reason that Emilie and Klimt were never married was perhaps that Klimt was somewhat of a Viennese Casanova. Undoubtedly, he was somewhat of a misogynist and was obsessed with the human form. As well as his desire for the women he painted. Given the freedom of expression from the Secession movement, Klimt drew hundreds of erotic drawings in the 1900s. These expressive, sensual, and dynamic forms would go onto become the basis for his famous Mermaids and Serpents.

I loved how the Mermaids were represented in Immersive Klimt. Swimming around the space, giving real movement to their sensual and fluid forms. It’s very interesting to note that the design of the women’s bodies is stretched and feature a bulbous head. Creating the effect of a phallic-like shape. The integration of male and female forms as one singular creature.

Another signature style of Klimt’s paintings was his women with long, large, red hair. The hair runs wild! It swirls around the women as if with a mind of its own. In early paintings of these mermaids, they are featured with men staring at them, both enraptured and horrific all at the same time. This gives the viewer a hint that perhaps these are not just any women, but in fact, more like Sirens. The Siren’s power is in their ability to capture and eat the men they seduce. While Klimt did his fair share of objectifying women he also was a man who saw the power of women.

Water Serpents

In later paintings like Water Serpents I and Water Serpents II, the women are depicted in their own world. No men in their new kingdom. In fact, one of the pieces was very controversial as it was thought to depict two women as lovers. Klimt renamed the piece “Mermaids,” giving it a symbolic theme in fear that it would be censored. The fairytale context and fish-like bodies allowed him to represent this facet of society without being criticized. Later in his career, he would unabashedly represent lesbians without contextualizing them into myths. He wanted to paint them as they were. They became less abstract, the bodies unmanipulated. They were just simply The Women Friends, wrapped in an intimate embrace.

Judith and the Head of Holofernes

Women’s power over men was another theme that shocked society at the time. And yet, Klimt did not shy away from this. Klimt’s interpretation of Judith and the Head of Holofernes is a decisive example of his point of view. This scene is painted time and time again in art history and with many different interpretations. In most paintings of this scene we can see Judith in the process of cutting the head off, sometimes looking angry, violent, or even a bit repulsed. But usually, the man’s entire body can be seen, his horrified face sometimes more powerful than the expression on Judith. And yet, in Klimt’s, Judith’s body takes up almost the entire frame. She is the star.

The head of Holofernes a literal side note, just peeking out from the corner of the frame. Judith’s expression is almost orgasmic as she reclines against the wall with her breasts exposed. She is seen taking pleasure in this act, something which Viennese society simply could not bring themselves to understand. Despite Judith being the one who cut off the head of Holofernes, she looks slightly decapitated. The large gold necklace around her neck blends into the gold background, making it look as if her head is almost floating about her body. Mimicking the act of the beheading.

Beethoven Frieze 1901

In 1901, Klimt began work on a large frieze for the Fourteenth Vienna Secessionist exhibition. Although the piece was only intended to be displayed during the exhibition, it was painted directly onto the walls. The entire piece stands at 7-feet high and 112 feet wide.

It wraps around the rooms and begins with the image of a floating female Genii. Her form is repeated across this side to depict her flying around in search of Earth. The genii greet three golden figures. The largest figure in the foreground is a knight, wearing a shining set of golden armour. The knight is a symbol of hope, a saviour to humanity’s suffering.

Typhoeus

In the most interesting part of the mural, the Genii meets the wind giant Typhoeus and his hostile forces. Typhoeus is a giant hairy creature with great wings that stretch across the entire wall. The creature’s giant snake-like tail curls under the wings and circles inwards like a spiral.

For Europeans of the time, the image of Typhoeus was especially impactful. Typhoeus was the personification of typhoid which plagued European cities, including Vienna, in the nineteenth century.

Typhoeus stands with his daughters, the three Gorgons, who symbolize lust, debauchery, and death. Their jet-black hair is encircled in golden snakes, just like the tail of their father. Their alluring bodies seem to temp viewers to come closer. They are the real sirens who lure men to their doom. Above the sirens are a series of ghoulish-looking women who seem to almost be decaying away in front of our eyes. These represent the faces of syphilis which was also running rampant through the streets of Vienna. Clearly, Klimt had a personal issue with all these diseases.

To the right of Typhoeus, a full-figured woman with sagging breasts represent Intemperance. She is excessive in all ways, in the wealth of her flashy jewelry, her ostentatious blue skirt and her obvious gluttony.

Love, Art and Music

But the Genii flies on in search of happiness. And she finds it, in a choir of angels. The singing represents the fact that we are led to an ideal realm of happiness and pure love through art. Music is truly heaven on earth.

The scene ends with a kiss. All that constant yearning, and searching, finally comes to an end. The couple’s kiss is so passionate that the world around them seems to disappear, and they enter into their own reality. Behind them grows a tree. Perhaps reminiscent of the tree of life, which spread out from the earth into the heavens. The lover’s feet are bound together as if it represents the sturdy trunk of the tree.

The Ravenna Awakening

In 1903 Klimt was searching for inspiration. He was 41 years old, and despite his success, he found himself at an impasse. On a trip to Italy to gaze upon the old masters, he stopped into the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. The church is most famous for its incredible Byzantine mosaics. In fact, St Vitale boasts the largest and best-preserved mosaics outside of Istanbul. In a letter, Klimt stated that “the mosaics are of incredible splendour.”

As Klimt’s father was a gold engraver, goldwork had been a part of his life for as long as he’d lived. And yet, this was the first time he had allowed the gold to overwhelm him and enter fully into his art. He was amazed at how the light reflected onto the gold. The light seemed to change the entire piece as the shone into the room. It seemed so expressive and was yet another element Klimt could add to his paintings to bring them to another emotional level.

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

One of the first paintings Klimt made upon his return to Austria was the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. In this portrait, you can see precisely how the mosaics of Ravenna translated themselves into his paintings. Adele is sitting against this brilliant golden starry background. She wears a beautiful triangular-shaped dress, made up of rectilinear forms of silver and gold leaf. There was so much gold and silver leaf in the painting, the total cost of the work of art was as much as a large house in the middle the Vienna.

Each part of her dress and body is decorated in a different pattern, creating this patchwork quilt of symbolism. In parts of the paintings, the dress blends so perfectly into the background to the point where the subject becomes one with the background, almost melting into it.

Egyptian Influence

Some of the symbols used within the painting reflect Klimt’s interest in Egypt. In this painting, the Eye of Horus is repeated along the front of her dress. Egypt’s Book of the Dead is one of the most richly decorated texts from that era, and Klimt was enthralled with its imagery. Klimt was also interested in the idea of life after death. In this painting, Adele seems like she is floating in an ethereal place, which is not of this plane of reality but perhaps of somewhere between life and death.

It is rumoured that Adele was also Klimt’s model (and perhaps lover) for the painting of Judith and the Head of Holofernes. The two women bear many similarities, and the large chocker around their necks are almost identical in both portraits. Although this cannot be proven, the love and care Klimt took in her painting is irrefutable.

The Saga of the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Long after Klimt’s death, the painting of Adele went on to transcend art history and become one of the most famous paintings in the world. During WWII, the painting changed hands multiple times, attempting to evade destruction by the Nazis. Although Adele had originally written in her will that the paintings be given to the National Viennese Art Gallery upon her death, this was because she died long before the Nazis invaded. A new will by her husband had been created to ensure the painting was kept within the family. But this was ignored and the museum kept the painting for years even though it had been sold to them by a Nazi sympathizer.

Eventually, the great-granddaughter of Adele Bloch-Bauer was able to open a new case to get the painting returned. She was able to file the case over in America where she now lived under a new law. She was finally successful and despite her long fight, she found she needed to sell as such an expensive painting just couldn’t be kept in her home. The painting was set to be bold at auction but ended up being sold privately for a whopping $135 million.

The Tree of Life 1905

The next famous painting in Klimt’s golden period was The Tree of Life, or the Stoclet Frieze. The Stoclet Palace was the home of a wealthy Belgian who commissioned several of the Secessionist artists to make art for his new palace. This piece he commissioned by Klimt was to hang on a large wall inside his dining room.

The triptych features a large swirling tree in the centre. To the left is a single woman draped in a large patterned cape, and to the right is an embracing couple. The couple’s embrace mimics the same pose of Klimt’s most famous painting, The Kiss. In the Tree of Life, Klimt continued to explore the themes of Egypt symbology he began to explore in the Portrait of Adele. The Tree of Life is an important symbol in many cultures. And in most cultures, the tree symbolized the connection between the world of human beings with that of the gods and spirits. Another ancient symbol incorporated into the painting is the repeated coils and spiral reminiscent of ancient Mycenaean.

Eye of Horus

The tree’s trunk is covered in the Eyes of Horus looking out at the viewer. Perched in the centre of the tree is a great raven or falcon. Horus was often portrayed as a falcon when the god came down to earth. Horus had two eyes, one made of the sun and the other made of the moon. The morning and the night, life and death. Just as Horus represents the circle of life, as does the tree. The tree’s swirling branches represent the different directions and ways life is a complex circle. The tree’s branches touch the sky, and its roots reach the ground, creating a connection between life and death. As if to tell the viewer there is no real end, only a new beginning in a new circle.

The woman on the right is called Expectation. Her large dress features huge pyramid motifs throughout her robe. Her face is also heavily inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics. On the right, we have the couple who are called Fulfillment. This couple was once called the Lovers. But this name was too close to the Kiss which also shares a very similar pose. The couple is standing in a loving embrace. But in this pose, we do not see the man’s face at all as he has his back to us. The man seems to fall into the women’s arms, as the patterns on their dresses meld together as if they are becoming one. Perhaps Klimt’s commentary on the meaning of life, and how to be fulfilled, is to be loved.

The Kiss

The most famous of all Klimt’s paintings is The Kiss. It is often quoted as being one of the most romantic paintings in the world. This painting was one of the most popular posters sold at university fairs and hung on many people’s walls I lived with throughout the years. It has almost become a parody of itself but nevertheless, its power is truly extraordinary.

A couple stands in front of a starry, golden background. The ground upon which they stand seems to be blessed with fertility. Flowers bloom in a thicket in vibrant colours beneath them. So dense the grass cannot even be seen. The couple stands, almost on the edge of the earth, in a passionate embrace. Both the foreground and background are painted on the same plain. There is no depth to the painting. This reflects Klimt’s inspiration, the Ravenna mosaics. The flatness of the mosaics seemed to enthrall him, and it was through the use of light and texture that the mosaics would sparkle and shine and be given depth. But of a different sort.

Man vs. Woman

Unlike in the Tree of Life, this couple’s clothing is made of differing patterns. The man’s large robe is painted with dark geometric patterns. His robe features straight lines and more classically “masculine” colours of blacks, greys and browns. The men’s head is entangled in a crown of green vines, like the Laurel wreaths which symbolize man’s victory.

The woman also has a spray of flowers women into her hair but not as a crown, perhaps showing her submissiveness. Her dress is also distinctly more colourful. It features swirling organic forms which are classically more feminine. The circles almost resemble a women’s womb. From the bottoms of her dress, golden vines seem to creep downwards, perhaps another hint at the idea of women’s fertility.

Orpheus and Eurydice

Many art historians refer to the couple in the scene as mythological characters from the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus fell madly in love with Eurydice, and yet shortly after they were married, she was bitten by a snake and died. Orpheus, in utter heartbreaking despair, goes to the underworld to retrieve his lost love. As he was a talented musician, he managed to get past many of the obstacles in his way using these talents. When he finally found her, Hades told the lovers they could only leave on one condition. That they never look back.

The couple agreed, and after finally climbing out of the underworld and seeing the beauty of the golden sun and green grass on the earth’s surface, Orpheus turned back to look at Eurydice to see her reaction. But when he did, she disappeared forever. Klimt has captured that moment for us, frozen in time. The moment as Orpheus turns back to kiss Eurydice just before she disappears is preserved in golden amber. Her toes are curled under and clutch the earth, on the edge of the underworld, to which they just exited. That grip shows to the viewer how much she doesn’t want to let go. And lose her love forever. Despite knowing the ending, we want to see a different result for these passionate lovers. And if we cannot change the course of history, let us therein just reveal in this moment with them.

Emilie Flöge?

Many people think the woman who modelled for ‘The Kiss’ was Klimt’s long-time lover and companion Emilie Flöge. Despite never being married, the two were truly soul mates. When Klimt died, the last words out of his mouth was, “Emilie must come.” While the man in the painting doesn’t resemble perfect Klimt himself, I like to imagine this is his idealized version of himself and captures their unique romance for eternity.

En Plein Air

After the fervour of his golden period, Klimt began a new cycle of art which was inspired by his choice to start painting outside. ‘En Plein Air‘ or Plein air painting is the act of painting outdoors. This period of painting did away with the gold and silver gilt. It was replaced with a more subdued palette and subject matter. He employed a lot of purples, lilacs and salmon tones in these paintings, which some people call his “purple period.” Klimt was so interested in this new form of painting he re-made his portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer in this new style. Since she was so important to him. He even made a painting of her daughter despite the fact that otherwise Klimt almost never painted children.

The majority of these pastel paintings surrounded his favourite subject; women. Most of them were so erotic they could not be exhibited at the time. Klimt featured portraits of female lovers wrapped in a beautiful embrace that shocked the public at the time in Vienna. But Klimt didn’t shy away from portraying all aspects of sexuality. Despite the restrained pallet, Klimt nevertheless continued to play with stylized backdrops and floral patterns. The paintings looking more and more like a kaleidoscope.

Klimt’s Death

In many of Klimt’s paintings, he seems to be interested in the idea of disease and epidemics. It is therefore pretty ironic that Klimt himself fell ill to the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918. It took his young life at the age of 55 years old. One has to imagine how many other incredible paintings he would have made should he have lived past this epidemic. He was buried at the Hietzinger Cemetery in Vienna. He lies underneath a rather plain tombstone with only his name emblazoned on the granite but written in a perfectly Secessionist font. A subtle memorial to all the great works of art he helped create, in addition to his own works, in the founding of this group.

Klimt truly was a visionary who saw the world in a way that it is almost impossible to find its equal. While the Kiss might be his most memorable work of art, there are so many other pieces you should seek out and learn more about. They tell the real story of his life and by seeing them all together in an exhibition like Immersive Klimt is a unique experience I think is worth a visit! Let me know in the comments what your favourite painting is or what you thought of the exhibition.

Happy Travels, Adventurers!

The post Everything You Need to Know About Immersive Klimt, An Honest Review first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.

But today, when we look at this artwork, we don’t find his images as controversial as they once were. Our modern eyes think of Monet as old-fashioned, and it’s hard to imagine how these paintings once shocked the world. So how can we translate the power these paintings once held to a modern audience? Well, Beyond Monet aims to do just that.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the opening week of Beyond Monet in Toronto. I had previously attended Beyond Van Gogh in Calgary and was excited to see the next iteration from the “Beyond” creators.

About Beyond Monet

Beyond Monet aims to bring guests into Monet’s artworks. It turns you from a spectator into a character within the frame, inside his ethereal world of impressionism. The pictures are brought to life as the paint moves, swirl, and transforms itself around the circular room. The main space where you view the show is located inside a curved room. The design of this room was inspired by the Orangerie Museum in France, where Monet’s large-scale Water Lilies series is on display. His water lilies paintings wrap around the room in that museum, and here they wanted to recreate that effect but with more of Monet’s collections of paintings.

While many people know Monet only by his iconic Water Lillies, what the production really does well is introducing you to a myriad of his other works, central to his oeuvre. The show’s main theme focuses on the controversy that Monet faced when he began his impressionist movement. And Monet was indeed a revolutionary of the art world during his time. The show’s culmination project reviews Monet’s artwork on-screen, which were less than favourable when the impressionism movement began.

But in reality, Monet was a thriving artist in his own lifetime, unlike some other artists who only found success after their death. Monet did suffer greatly in many ways, but he also flourished. Just like the flowers that bloomed in his garden. While they may fade and die in the winter, they come back in the Spring and Summer brighter and more vibrant than ever! In Monet’s full bloom, at the very end of his life, he created the most iconic series of paintings of the 20th century. His iconic waterlilies mural, a dedication to the lost soldiers of WWI.

Access & Admission

Beyond Monet is located at the Toronto Metro Convention Center. The Convention Center is located right beside Union Subway Station and Union Go Station. This makes it extremely accessible by public transit from anywhere else in the city. There are multiple parking lots around the area, ranging in price from $10 to $27/hour. Still, with public transit so easily and cheaply accessible, that is my recommendation. The show is entirely wheelchairs, walkers, and scooter accessible.

The show runs until November 14th, 2021 | Sunday – Thursday: 10am – 10pm | Friday – Saturday: 10am – 11pm

Tickets

There are two tiers of ticketing options. The first is the cheaper option which is offered during off-peak hours (Monday – Thursday). An Adult Timed Entry ticket is $39.99, Children are $29.99, and Students/Seniors are $35.99. During peak hours (Friday – Sunday and holidays), tickets for Adults are $49.99, Children are $29.99, and Students/Seniors are $45.99. Your ticket also is subject to ticketing fees bringing the cost for two people over $100. Because the visit is about one hour in length, this is a pretty costly outing. 

I’ve commented on this before, but I’ll say it again. I really think that the producers of this show need to consider the pricing of these productions. I think the show is fantastic, but not for the cost they are currently offering. A ticket to the ROM is $23, and the AGO is $25, and this institution can provide an entire day’s worth of entertainment. Compare that to a single hour for almost double the price of the Beyond Monet production. For people for whom money is no object, this obviously isn’t an issue. Still, the show is definitely something I wish would be more accessible to a wider audience. I think a pay-what-you-can day would be a great idea to open the show up to more people.

My Honest Review of Beyond Monet

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies

The introductory room to Beyond Monet features two arched bridges inspired by the famous ‘Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies‘ painting. Hanging from the ceilings around the room are large explanatory panels. This room doesn’t have any real directional flow, so it’s difficult to know where to start or follow the story they are trying to tell. I know many people find it so difficult to read informative panels in any context. But it felt even more difficult here. It’s so important to read these to get a better idea of the story they are trying to tell. This room features the sound of birds chirping, water rushing and the wind blowing through the trees. This is actually one of the most immersive parts of the exhibit, as it sounds like what Monet would have heard while painting in the garden. I just wish the text had been a bit more consumable, concise and streamlined.

The context will help the viewer understand the art more deeply. It makes the show more than just looking at pretty pictures, but understanding who Monet was, his philosophy, why he changed the world of painting and how he saw the world around him. I just wish there had been a way to weave this into the show a bit better, so you didn’t have to rely on people reading every panel to absorb this information. Because let’s face it…they don’t. 

Infinity Room

From the first room, you are lead through a tunnel of streamers into the ‘Infinity Room.’ This room features a large pavilion in the center surrounded by reflective panels on the floor for guests to sit on. The reflective panels are one of the best parts of the room as they act as mirrors and reflect the artwork onto more parts of the room, like drops of rain speckled on the floor. The gazebo surrounded by Monet’s naturalistic images felt wonderfully fitting. Sitting under the awning looking out at the gardens was one of the most entrancing parts of the show.

Immersive Intervention

The production tries to wrap the images around the gazebo roof, but adding projections onto the ceiling means the entire room is more illuminated. You can therefore make out the metal of the lighting rig and other elements which take you out of the immersive experience. It very much feels like you are standing in a convention center. This was perhaps the biggest failing, as it really took you out of the imaginative space. The Van Gogh exhibition had images covering the floor and crawling up the twisting walls. It seems to transform the space differently. I also felt like the score of this production was a bit weak. Van Gogh featured a nice combination of traditional and modern music with great swells and pacing. This score felt a bit lacklustre. As Monet himself was this huge revolutionary, I had hoped the music could have reflected this sense of rebellion. And for the price of the tickets, you’d think they could get some good music rights.

The Collection

What Beyond Monet really does well provides the viewer with such a rich deep dive into Monet’s collection of artworks. Nowhere in the world could you ever have so many different works of Monet together at once. It would simply be too expensive to put on for any museum. The designers of the show do an amazing job of curating various paintings together. They do not appear chronologically but weave together thematically to tell a story all about how Monet saw light and colour. And his emerging dynamic style.

Overall Review

Overall ‘Beyond Monet’ felt a bit rushed. On the heels of the success of ‘Beyond Van Gogh,’ it felt like they really wanted to latch onto the next big thing and ran with the idea. The animations given to the artworks felt a bit unexceptional and simplistic. The train moves on the tracks, the boats bob up and down on the waves and the tree blow in the wind. Pretty typical. While Monet was a revolutionary, the show’s animation definitely felt like it could have pushed the boundaries a bit more. And perhaps with a bit more time, there could have been a bit more dynamism added to the experience.

About Claude Monet

Monet’s Young Life

As is the tale with many famous artists, Monet’s life is marred with death. He was born in 1840 in the heart of Paris. Although the family moved to Normandy in 1845, Paris’s artful heart was etched forever into Monet’s mind. From even an early age, Monet dreamed of being a painter. His father was a merchant and wanted to push Monet into going into the family grocery business. It was Monet’s mother who supported his career as an artist, as she was a singer. Monet’s loving mother died in 1857 when Monet was just 16 years old.

Monet’s father had no way of caring for the children on his own. So Monet’s father sent the children to live with his widowed but wealthy aunt, Marie-Jeanne Lecadre. Although suffering from the loss of his mother, his living situation with Lecadre was fortuitous as she was one of the greatest supporters of Monet throughout his career.

Monet in Paris

When Monet moved to Paris to study in the Académie Suisse. Back then, the most popular style of art was neoclassical paintings. These featured the myths and legends of Greek and Roman gods. If ever artists painted the world around them, it was solemn peasants toiling in the fields. And yet Monet saw a completely different world. Not of the past but over the ever-changing present. His world was modern, full of inventions and vibrant social life. Monet met his lover Camille in 1859 when in Paris. She became his primary model and painted her obsessively throughout this period of infatuation. 

En Plein-Air

While in Paris, Monet also met Renoir, who shared his passion for discovering a new painting style. Together they formed a group of like-minded individuals. This included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morisot! A true gauntlet of artists. One of the things these artists all had in common was how they painted. They developed stylistic experimentation called “en Plein-air” or “outside painting.” They abandoned the idea of a stuffy studio and instead brought their canvases outside. This meant smaller canvases and a quicker method of painting that captured a singular moment in time. Monet painted garden scene after garden scene. Women walking through flower encrusted fields or lounging beneath the trees filled his canvases.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.

Claude Monet

Monet’s Storm

In 1867, Monet and his then-mistress, Camille Doncieux, gave birth to their first child, Jean. Monet’s father was horrified at this birht out of wedlock and immediately cut off any financial support to Monet. The two eventually married in 1870, shortly before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. Wanting to avoid conscription, Monet fled to London and the Netherlands and lived with the family where he could. While in London, he stumbled upon paintings on the nautical paintings of J. M. W. Turner through an art dealer friend of his. Monet was enraptured. He was captivated with Turner’s use of light, or sometimes the lack thereof. Turner knew how to paint the fog. His paintings lacked any crispness and yet held a powerful sense of emotion and depth of curiosity within them.

Relfections on the Thames

Monet himself turned to paint his own series on the Thames river during all different times on the day. Monet’s previous seascapes were rendering of the world, but this series was about rendering emotions. “Merit lies in having painted directly in front of nature, seeking to render my impressions of the most fleeting effects.” He became enthralled with light and how light altered the colour of the world around him. How light could change the perceptions of reality. Nature reflected the brooding of his mind. He also found it important to paint the modern landscape, which contained industrial elements like railways and factories, which were the makeup of the modern world.

In 1874, he bought a boat to sail on the water to make himself one with the world in which he wanted to immerse himself. Monet’s finances were dire. He couldn’t pay for his family’s housing, and the need to sell more paintings became the primary focus of his life.

Paris Debut

In 1874, Monet and his other fellow painters made their debut in the Paris Art Salon, hoping to sweep the art world off its feet. Sadly, their style of painting was roundly rejected. The art critic Louis Leroy wrote a hostile review of Monet’s painting titled ‘Impression, Sunrise,’ where the style and term “impressionism” was coined. The show Beyond Monet seems to focus on these negative reviews. But in fact, there were plenty of progressively who praised the painter’s style and called it a “revolution in painting.”

Monet had hoped to sell ‘Impression, Sunrise’ for 1000 francs and was devastated to find it didn’t sell at all. But only a few years later, in 1877, when he displayed his series of paintings of Gare Saint-Lazare train station, did he find himself back in the good graces of the art critics. It seemed it only took a few years for the idea of impressionism to marinate on the cultural palette and for it soon to overwhelm the minds of people and of the critics.

As their success grew, Monet’s impressionists could experiment with their methods more, creating new and even more abstract ways of depicting reality. It’s almost like with success, Monet abandoned those dark and gloomy tones from his earlier periods in favour of a bright, pastel palette that felt airy and optimistic. His brushstrokes became softer, like the delicate caress of a lover. The strokes were smaller as well, and he would apply layer upon layers of these small strokes to form a new kind of optical depth within his paintings. Like looking through a dense tree, the light dappling through the leaves, revealing a secret garden within.

A Blizzard of Loss

Despite increasing commercial success, Monet would suffer another devastating blow when Camillie died in 1878. As she lay dying, Monet didn’t know how to process the grief outside of his paintings. “I one day found myself looking at my beloved wife’s dead face and just systematically noting the colours according to an automatic reflex.” Many art critics view this painting as one of the best death paintings ever created as the colours. The expressive nature of his brushstrokes seems to communicate to the viewer the “blizzard of loss” so intensely felt by all those who have lost a loved one.

Garden in Giverny

But being a romantic-hearted artist, it didn’t take Monet long to find another object of his affections. He began having an affair with Alice Hoschedé, wife of art collector Ernest Hoschedé. Even though she was still married, the two and their children moved into a house together in Giverny. This house in Giverny where Monet could finally realize his dreams of creating his own “Garden of Eden.” While Monet’s paintings had always focused on nature and gardens, he dreamt of creating one of his own where he could curate the scenes for every season.

Designing the Garden

Through the sale of some of his paintings in America, Monet’s new wealth meant he could have whatever he wanted. He poured through his collection of botany books and gave precise designs and layouts for plantings to his gardeners. At one time, he had as many as seven gardeners working on the project. He purchased more land around the house to develop his water Lillie pond, importing Lillies from as far afield as South America and Egypt.

Although famously Monet told the papers he didn’t even have an indoor studio and was constantly photographed painting outdoors, this was untrue. While he preferred painting outdoors, sometimes this just wasn’t possible, and he had his largest studio yet, built in Giverny. It was a converted greenhouse which meant it was well lit and even contained skylights. In this studio and outside in the garden, he would obsessively paint the water lilies. He painted them continuously for the next 20 years of his life. As his family began to pass away around him, his water lilies remained.

The Cataracts

In 1911 Monet’s second wife, Alice, died along with his oldest son Jean. Following this, Monet began a romance with Blanche, one of Alice’s daughters, but she also passed away in 1914. Blanche has been caring for Monet in his old age and left alone, and in a deep depression, Monet lost the will to paint. It was during this time that Monet began to develop the first signs of cataracts. This not only affected his sight but affected the way his eyes saw colour. You can see in the few paintings he made during this time how dark the hues are. He couldn’t see the light tones. His assistants even had to lay the colours out in a specific order on the palette so Monet could remember what they were.

Despite this being over a hundred years ago, surgery for cataracts was an option. But Monet was terrified of the surgery as he knew of a few botched surgeries that left the patient with no sight at all. But, eventually, the condition got so bad, he resorted to surgery. Thankfully, it was successful, and his sight was restored. When Monet saw the canvases he had made before the surgery, he had most of them destroyed, as he was appalled at what he had been creating.

Waterlillies

With his new lease on life, Monet went back to painting. But this time with one last mission. It was World War I, and his youngest son Michel was sent to war. In his garden in Giverny, Monet could hear the echo of gunfire where he sat. The sound haunted him. He created a series of paintings that would serve as a memorial to the lost soldiers of WWI. These featured his water lilies but also featured weeping willows overlooking the flowers. After exhibiting these paintings, the French government approached him to create paintings for the French public.

Waterlillies for the Orangerie

Monet worked directly with the architect of the Orangerie in Paris to create a special room just for his paintings. Unlike anything he had made before, these would be 8 enormous curved panels that would cover over 200 sq/meters and envelope the viewer. Monet and the architect not only designed the room to be round but also incorporated a large skylight. This skylight would allow the paintings to change as the direction of the sunlight burst through the room. It is now viewed as one of the first art installations.

“Water Lilies’ is an extension of my life. Without the water, the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.”

Claude Monet

The paintings themselves gave the viewer the impression of an endless field of waterlilies. But the water is dark, and if you squint, the flowers are lost and instead, it feels like you are standing in an endless hole. The water is a wave with no horizon or no shore. This was how the soldiers on the battlefield would have felt as they fought in their endless battle. Drowning in the dark, covered in mud and without a sense of hope in sight. And yet here, the flower bloom, a sign of hope. Throughout the room, you can see hints of the weeping willow trees, who mourn for the people Monet has lost over the years as well.

Let me know in the comment if you saw the Beyond Monet exhibit or how you feel about these digital immersive art exhibitions!

Happy Travels, Adventurers!

The post Honest Review of ‘Beyond Monet’, The Revolutionary Impressionist Painter Who Changed the World first appeared on The Creative Adventurer.