It has taken over a century for Gustav Klimt to gloriously return to Venice. His first exhibition at the Biennale dates back to 1910, and the show was a triumph: his extravagant, yet delicate, paintings had been placed right opposite Renoir’s, as to emphasize the striking difference between these two masters and the gap that diveded their conception of beauty and visual arts.

Left: Gustav Klimt, Judith I (1901). Coll: Ca’ Pesaro National Gallery of Modern Art, Venice artes fine arts magazine 

What we can see at the Correr Museum in this new exhibition is slightly different, nonetheless equally fascinating – walking through the cosy rooms overlooking St. Mark’s Square, right (the view is breathtaking – make sure you manage to snap a quick picture from one of the windows before you leave) we take a step back in time to revisit the motives and evolution of the Vienna Secession, the propitious artistic movement Klimt founded in 1897 along with Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich, among others.

From architecture to fashion design, from painting to decorative arts, these artists embraced the whole range of visual aesthetics to create an incisive collective stance on their times and celebrate the power of artistic achievement in a rapidly evolving society which needed a new drive to sustain change, question tradition and creatively combine it with modernity.

The works of art selected for the exhibition are displayed in chronological order, so that the audience can slowly immerse themselves in the splendour of art nouveau and trace the path that led to architectural masterpieces such as Hoffmann’s monumental Stoclet Palace (1905- 1911).

Klimt is, of course, the key protagonist of the show: once I found myself facing the massive Beethoven Frieze (1901-1902) and the almost onyric The Kiss (1907-1908) I could not but be charmed by their flashes of gold and green, as well as their delicate celebration of female sensuality.

Rigour and fragility are equally important in his style, whose intensity lies precisely in his ability to mix sweetness with bold colour choices. Curator Alfreid Weidinger managed to create a perfect balance between historical investigation and iconographic evolution: the result is a truly enjoyable exhibition that is both rich in contents and pleasant to the eye.

Whether the purpose of an artistic movement in our postmodern times might be a bit at odds with today’s idea of success as a strictly individual pursuit, I believe this exhibition wants to us question if such an operation might still be successful as a means to promote culture when nothing truly original seems to be produced anymore. Could there be such a thing as a “school” without homologation? Could contemporary artists face such a challenge?

There is, however, one thing I am 100% sure about: I have not left the museum either disappointed or with sore feet. I felt like having visited a dreamy world where colours and shapes are still capable of making life much lighter and perturbing at the same time.

Left: Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (1907-08)

By Beatrice Boatto, Contributing Writer

Lots of useful info can be found here: www.mostraklimt.it

The exhibition will be open until July 8th @Correr Museum, Venice.