Klimt, Schiele, and Kokoschka: Portrayals of Women

Cabanel's 'The Birth of Venus' (1863) exemplifies academic art ideals: mythological subject, grace for modeling, silky brushwork, and a perfected female form. This represents the mythologizing of the female nude, which was considered unreal and therefore socially acceptable—a highly problematic and hypocritical approach. Jean-Léon Gérôme's 'The Reveal of the Phrygian Maid' (1863) caused quite a stir because he painted the courtesan in full-blown nudity, whereas literature only revealed her breasts to the judges. This reflects 19th century French men's attitudes toward women's bodies and how the sin of lust had snuck into the art world.

The nude was approached from multiple perspectives in 19th-century art. Ingres's 'Grande Odalisque' (1814), exhibited in the 1819 Salon, represents the traditional approach, continuing the tradition from Giorgione and Titian. Ingres attempted to establish an ideal beauty canon with sinuous lines and extremely careful modeling. Manet's 'Olympia' (1863) modernized this tradition, depicting a woman with vulgar Parisian features rather than a goddess.

The tradition of artistic idealization evolved through mentorship between painters. Joseph Stieler pioneered idealized portraiture in Munich with his Gallery of Beauties, creating what functioned as a 19th-century Instagram wall of beautiful women. His student Franz Xaver Winterhalter then exported these techniques across Europe, applying them to queens, empresses, and celebrities. This transmission of artistic techniques demonstrates how visual standards for representing beauty were systematically developed and disseminated across different cultural contexts.

European nude painting employed systematic conventions to minimize female sexual power: women rarely danced or showed energy, their hair was omitted (associated with passion), and they looked away from male lovers toward the true spectator. The only rival to the male viewer was Cupid—a child figure. These conventions ensured women fed male appetite without expressing their own vitality. Even when male lovers appeared, women's attention remained directed outward, reinforcing their role as objects rather than subjects.

The absurdity of male flattery reached its peak in 19th-century academic art. The nude in European oil painting is usually presented as an ideal subject, said to express the European humanist spirit. However, this idealism may result from indifference to who any one person really is. Do these paintings celebrate women within them or the male voyeur? Is there sexuality within the frame or in front of it?

Gustav Klimt's artistic philosophy centered on revealing raw human truth rather than presenting idealized beauty. While Viennese aristocratic society practiced hypocrisy, Klimt exposed uncomfortable truths about human nature. His early training at the Vienna Applied Arts School (age 14) shaped his decorative style. In 1897, at age 17, he co-founded the Art Company with his brother Ernst, responding to Vienna's urban renewal demands. The company's first major commission was the Burgtheater ceiling painting. Vienna's conservative cultural context, resistant to modernist movements, created unique challenges. Between 1890 and 1892, personal tragedy (death of brother and father) caused him to temporarily abandon art, leading to his connection with Emilie Flöge. The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 when young artists led by Klimt broke away from the conservative Vienna Artists' Association, which controlled all exhibitions and resisted new movements.

In 1897, Klimt led 19 avant-garde artists to form the Vienna Secession, breaking from conservative academies and embracing Symbolism's mystical ideas, dreams, and erotic themes. This marked modernism's dawn. The movement built an extraordinary exhibition hall. Klimt's 34-meter Beethoven Frieze celebrated idealism over materialism, later co-opted by Nazis who saw its central knight as a proto-führer. The University of Vienna then commissioned five ceiling paintings, but Klimt's radical style—deeply influenced by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer—clashed with academic expectations, leading to rejection.

In 1897, Klimt led artists in seceding from Vienna's academic establishment, forming the Vienna Secession—the first major formalized break from academic systems. They published Ver Sacrum and built the Secession Hall, pursuing the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) concept combining architecture, painting, and design. Their motto 'To every age its art, to every art its freedom' rejected historicism. Works like the Beethoven Frieze and Athena Parthenon demonstrated this philosophy, using allegory, decorative patterns, and dreamlike qualities influenced by Freudian psychology to challenge traditional artistic conventions.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) emerged from Vienna's conservative 19th-century academic tradition to become a pioneer of modern art. Born to a goldsmith father, he attended an arts and crafts school rather than fine arts, developing a philosophy that rejected distinctions between fine art and craft. His early career involved decorating Ringstrasse mansions, but his radical turn came after his father and brother died, leading to scandalous university commissions rejected as pornography. Founding the Vienna Secession in 1897, he united art, craft, architecture, and design—a formal beginning of modern art in Austria. The Kiss (1907-1908), his masterpiece, combines gold leaf technique, symbolic costume design, and ambiguous eroticism to bridge academic realism and abstraction, embodying Vienna's golden age before the empire's collapse in 1918.

Following the deaths of his father and brother, Klimt underwent a profound transformation. In 1897, he founded the Vienna Secession movement, breaking away from conservative, historically-oriented Viennese art. The Secession challenged the regressive atmosphere dominated by historical revivalism, which contrasted sharply with modernist movements in Paris and New York. Klimt's new artistic direction embraced eroticism and nudity as deliberate challenges to conservative conventions, representing a complete departure from his earlier academic success.

Symbolism emphasized emotions, feelings, ideas, and subjectivity rather than realism, often combining religious mysticism with themes of melancholy, evil, or death. Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) represents universal anxiety of modern man. German Expressionism emerged around the turn of the century as a response to widespread anxiety about humanity's relationship with the world, influenced by World War I. It is called Expressionism because art comes from within the artist, expressing what is inside rather than depicting the external world. Key artists included Vasily Kandinsky (completely abstract paintings designed to evoke sound like music).

This lecture introduces the concept of symbolism and early expressionism in Polish art of the late 19th century. The term 'Młoda Polska' (Young Poland) was coined in 1897 by Artur Gruszecki to describe this cultural formation encompassing visual arts, literature, and theater. Symbolism involved using symbols to communicate hidden meanings, emotions, and psychological states, representing a departure from traditional artistic conventions. Early expressionism emphasized the artist's subjective vision and psychological depth over objective representation. The lecture establishes that this period represents a break from realism, where artists sought to express inner experiences, dreams, fears, and subconscious thoughts rather than merely depicting external reality.

Expressionism emerged in Europe, particularly Germany, sharing modernist ideals of breaking with naturalistic traditions. The core principle is that when representing something, the most important thing is not to follow naturalistic logic but to represent the sensation or feeling one has when encountering that thing. If a painter wants to represent a place they feel nostalgic about, they should paint it to convey those feelings. The function of art in expressionism is to share sensations, feelings, and experiences that are subjective and cannot be easily explained to others. Expressionism is not inferior art but a different approach with its own rules.

Symbolism (Sembolizm) literally means 'symbolism' or 'symbolic representation.' It emerged in the 19th century in France, with Ahmet Haşim as its first major representative. Its fundamental principle is expressing emotions through symbols in a closed manner. Symbolism emerged as a reaction against Parnassianism, Realism, and Naturalism, representing an idealist revolt against these materialist movements. Key representatives include Ahmet Haşim, Cahit Sıtkı Tarancı, and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar. Symbolism emerged from rapid scientific developments and industrialization that caused people to become isolated and depressed. After France's defeat by Germany, people became more introspective. German philosopher Schopenhauer's philosophy that the world is an illusion gained prominence. In literature, decadence (isyan against all rules) contributed to Symbolism's emergence. Symbolists argue that reality cannot be described as it is because sensory organs may deceive us. Since each person's perceptions differ, Symbolists use symbols to express their individual impressions in a closed manner, allowing readers to interpret as they wish. The movement uses metaphorical language, similes, and dreams extensively. Common symbols include yellowing leaves, red sunset, still lakes, and faintly scented flowers. Music holds immense importance in Symbolism, described as the harmony between form and content. A good Symbolist poem is one that can be interpreted differently by different readers. Symbolists abandoned classical poetic forms like sonnets and tercets. The movement was primarily a poetry and theater movement, with no narrative in Symbolist novels or stories. Existentialism (Egzistansiyalizm) literally means 'being' or 'existence.' It emerged in the mid-19th century in France, with Jean-Paul Sartre as its founder and Martin Heidegger as the philosophical foundation. Its fundamental principle is that existence precedes essence, meaning humans create their own essence through their actions and choices. This contradicts all previous philosophical systems that assumed essence precedes existence. Existentialism emerged as a reaction against Realism, Surrealism, and Naturalism. Key representatives include Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Existentialism emerged from people who had lost faith in history, felt alienated from their society, and experienced misery and restlessness. It is characterized as 'bunality literature.' According to existentialism, humans cannot be inherently good or evil; they become what they do through their actions. A person who steals is a bad person, and a person who abuses others is a bad person. Unlike other philosophical movements, Existentialism focuses on the individual rather than society, making it a 'society for art' approach. It was primarily effective in novels and theater. Expressionism (Ekspresyonizm) literally means 'expressionism' or 'outward expression.' It emerged in 1910 in Germany, with Franz Kafka and William Waringer as its founders. Its fundamental principle is expressing the inner world of humans against the meaninglessness and restlessness of the external world, using screams as the primary expression. Expressionism emerged as a reaction against Realism, Naturalism, and Parnassianism. Key representatives include Franz Kafka, Joyce, and Eliot. Expressionism emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction to technological modernization that caused isolation and restlessness in enlightened individuals. It represents a rebellion of the human spirit. Expressionism is characterized by individualism, with each artist having a unique style. Artists possess rich vocabulary and use screams as symbols of the spirit's rebellion. Impressionism (Empresyonizm) literally means 'impressionism' or 'capturing impressions.' It emerged in the late 19th century in France, with the principle of describing things as perceived. According to Mallarmé, words in Impressionist poetry should reach new meanings and be washed in phosphorescent light. Impressionism differs from Symbolism in that it does not prioritize formal elements. The movement adopted 'art for art's sake' and shares some characteristics with Symbolism. Key vocabulary includes 'symbolism,' 'individual impressions,' 'idealist philosophy,' 'music,' 'sonnet and tercet,' 'metaphorical language,' 'existence precedes essence,' 'bunality literature,' 'society for art,' 'expressionism,' 'inner world,' 'screams,' 'reaction against materialism,' 'individualism,' 'rich vocabulary,' 'impressionism,' 'capturing impressions,' 'phosphorescent light,' 'art for art's sake,' and 'subjective experience.' Mnemonic devices include 'bodies' for Symbolism, 'madness' for Symbolism, 'limit' for Symbolism, 'help' for Symbolism, 'ezyk' for Existentialism, 'dance' for Existentialism, 'ezyk dansı' for Existentialism, 'MP3' for Impressionism, connecting 'music' and 'painting.'

Expressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionism, focusing on the artist's inner world including anxiety, fear, and alienation from modern society, distorting reality to express subjective experience. Symbolism emphasizes individual emotions, dreams, and imagination, using symbols and musicality to convey meaning while leaving interpretation open. Both movements prioritize subjective experience over objective representation.