Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Art in the City - Klimt exhibit at the Legion of Honor

Klimt - Legion of Honor sign bw
The Legion of Honor is currently running the Klimt & Rodin exhibition and I was lucky enough to get tickets to this enormously popular event.

Klimt and Rodin are two of the more popular artists whose works of arts I enjoy and I feel thankful to have seen this exhibition while it is in San Francisco.




While San Francisco has world class paintings hanging in its art museums, there are works of arts that reside permanently in other cities worldwide, unless their home museum is being renovated and the paintings or works of arts are on loan to other museums. I feel lucky that the museums in San Francisco have been a stop to these traveling exhibitions.
Klimt - Legion of Honor facade 


I got to the Legion of Honor around 930am, I believe this is the time the museum opens on the weekend. However early I made it there, there were other people who got there before me. It was the last two weeks of the museum's Klimt & Rodin exhibit, after all. In this blog, I'll split Klimt and Rodin because it is too much to blog about. I'll show you first Klimt's works in the exhibit.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Rodin Thinker 


The tickets to go in is timed. I got the 11am group so to kill time, I lingered next to Matisse, Monet, Gaugin, Van Gogh and other Impressionist painters at the museum's permanent collections in Gallery 17.  When it was finally my time to go into the Klimt & Rodin exhibition, it was already swarming with art lovers. The exhibition occupies Galleries 9, 10, 11 and 12. By nature of habit, I went to the Gallery on my right which is Gallery 12. 

Gallery 12 contains Klimt's portraitures and landscape paintings.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Gallery 12 

Here are my favorites in this Gallery.

  Klimt - Legion of Honor Portrait Ria Munk III 
Portrait of Ria Munk III
Gustav Klimt
1917 (unfinished)
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Balg Feathered Hat 
Black Feathered Hat
Gustav Klimt
1910 
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Portrait Lady 
Portrait of a Lady
Gustav Klimt
1917
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Portrait Johanna Staude 
Portrait of Johanna Staude
Gustav Klimt
1917 (unfinished)
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Pine Forest I 
Pine Forest I
Gustav Klimt
1901
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Farmhouse Upper Austria 
Farmhouse in Upper Austria
Gustav Klimt
1911
Oil on Canvas


This is the crowd in Gallery 10. When I came in the museum, I noticed right away that Gallery 10 was more crowded even though it looks like the biggest room among the exhibition rooms. It didn't occur to me right away that this is where the painting called The Virgin might be displayed. This room contained Klimt's later works, including my favorite The Virgin.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Gallery 10 

Here are my favorites.

  Klimt - Legion of Honor Panel 10 11 Beethoven Frieze 
Replica of Panel 10 and 11 from Beethove Frieze
Gustav Klimt
1984 (copy)
Casein paint, chalk,graphite,plaster and various appliqué materials


  Klimt - Legion of Honor The Virgin 
The Virgin
Gustav Klimt
1913
Oil on Canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Baby The Baby 
Farmhouse in Upper Austria
Gustav Klimt
1917
Oil and tempera on Canvas



From Gallery 10, I walked toward the left at the back and found the smaller Gallery 9 which contained Klimt's erotic sketches.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Gallery 9 Erotic sketches 

From Gallery 9, I got to Gallery 8 which contains Klimt's works from his early days and the Viennese Secession.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Two Girls Oleander Bush 
Two Girls with an Oleander Bush
Gustav Klimt
1890/1892
Oil on canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Portrait Sonja Knips 
Portrait of Sonja Knips
Gustav Klimt
1898
Oil on canvas


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Viennese Secession 
Poster for the first exhibition of the Viennese Secession
Gustav Klimt
1898
Color Lithograph on Paper



Adjacent to the Galleries 8 and 12 are tiny hallways leading to the main lobby. Be very slow to walk because these areas also contained sketches and studies by Gustav Klimt. 
  Klimt - Legion of Honor Bust Child Standing Woman 
Bust of a Child
(study for the painting Love)
Gustav Klimt
1895
Pencil on Paper

Frontally Viewed Standing Woman
(study for the painting Judith II)
Gustav Klimt
1908
Pencil on Paper


  Klimt - Legion of Honor Girl Bucket Dress 
Girl with Bucket Dress
(study for the painting The Virgin)
Gustav Klimt
1911-1912
Pencil on Paper

I feel very fortunate to have seen this exhibition and see a glimpse of Klimt's great works.
  Klimt - Legion of Honor sign

~rl

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