Just yesterday Marica and I were discussing our love for the art of Gustav Klimt – Austrian symbolist painter. Today, his work is often seen as clichéd and cheesy (same happened to the work of poor Tretchikoff) however here at The Tabloid we still think it grand and romantic! We especially adore Klimt’s “Golden Phase” – many of his paintings from this period include the use of gold leaf – his famous “The Kiss” is an excellent example of this.
During the course of one of our Irish boutique hotel projects in Galway, I met a South African artist who works in a very different art medium. She would paint beautiful scenes on glass, cut the painted glass into puzzle-like pieces, and then tile it back together again in a mosaic-like fashion. The resulting artwork is absolutely stunning!
Through her I was introduced to the art work of Klimt – at the time she was creating some unbelievably beautiful Klimt tribute pieces in her shattered glass method. Well, needless to say I fell in love with his Klimt’s work right there and then. Naturally, we commissioned three big pieces of Klimt’s ladies from our glass artist to proudly display them in the reception area of the hotel.
There were a few unique art pieces in that hotel, but these three gorgeous ladies were the first the guests encountered. I always liked to think they were not only welcoming the guests, but also entertaining them and watching over them.
Now for your enjoyment, I’ve include our favourite works by Klimt below…
The Design Tabloid 