Avatar of Austrian Modernism

An absence of Klimt's writings about his own art makes interpreting his oeuvre highly challenging at times. This fact, as well as the extremely limited availability of reliable supporting documentation, forcefully underscores a couple of key points. First, it is indispensable to embed Klimt's art in a wider multi-disciplinary context and bring into the account some major biographical events that profoundly shaped his life and entire oeuvre . Second, strenuous efforts are necessary to decipher Klimt's formal language, including the numerous cryptic messages and symbols embedded within his art. Accordingly, this chapter briefly articulates Klimt's early creative period as well as some crucial biographical events that dramatically changed the trajectory of his oeuvre and shed light on some of his cryptic stylistic preferences from the mid-1890s onward. The chapter also outlines the cultural milieu of the early 1890s, including a consequential essay written by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which—together with other prominent voices of dissent—contributed to a dramatic reconfiguration of the Viennese cultural scene, culminating in the establishment of the Vienna Secession.