Gustav Klimt a go-go by Alan Dedman

Gustav Klimt a-go-go – good old Gustav, you have to admire his ability to draw the human form, even if it is over attentive to the female aspect. Someone loaned me a book of Klimt’s erotic drawings, published in the 70s; I made copies from plates in it. Then used these to extend the process of spin painting, in an effort to un-pick the Hirst gimmick.

Klimt’s drawings are often voyeuristic, form is nearly always created with line and there is little appreciation of volume through tonal modelling. The drawing I have chosen to work with offers a curled up figure, face obscured by a shawl. Eduard Fuchs says of Klimt’s work: “The women’s clothes, pulled up, folded over and cast aside – change his nudes into naked bodies; studies of unclothed bodies become erotic pictures of sexual desire or satisfaction. The nakedness of the body is underlined by textile ornament, nudity is peeled out of fabric”.

 I carefully chiselled out my own version of this drawing, using charcoal. Taking care to ensure the lines were thoroughly wrought, conforming to Klimt’s original work. This academic approach to drawing isn’t the way in which the Secessionist master would have worked but allows me to analyse his method. Next, the image was traced and transferred onto a circular canvas, where I made an initial under-painting using acrylic paint.

Whoever she was, this Viennese girl has been given a Viennese Whirl! Gustav Klimt a go-go; subjected to a centrifuge of colour after I masked out her figure, mounting canvas and stretcher on my spin-painting contraption. In terms of Jungian symbolism: the circular shape of the canvas is representative of wholeness – the complete person, which balances critique of Klimt’s figures as being fragmented.

Scraped off paint lingers as a vernix of pigment, the reclining person is pitched at us, hurtling through a burst of colour, her shawl billowing around her in a flux of movement as she breaks through space and time – in this Post-post Modern reiteration. Klimt, Hirst and Dedman, a cocktail of creativity presenting a renewed appreciation of the people Herr Klimt gave his attention to. Revitalising this young Viennese woman who pelts forward in an unruly advance, as she is reborn across time.

Gustav Klimt a-go-go is in oils over acrylic on canvas, 26.5 inches in diameter, 1.25 inches in depth. It is for sale and can be purchased from this website for £2,500.00 gbp. The preparatory drawing is also for sale: £250.00 gbp.

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