Artist Paul Klee Cat And Bird 1928
Pablo Picasso Girl Before A Mirror March 1932
Salvador Dali The Persistence Of Memory 1931
Max Ernst Two Children Are Threatened By A Nightingale 1924
Giorgio De Chirico The Duo Paris Winter 1914-15
Vincent Van Gogh The Olive Trees Saint Remy June-July 1889
Darcy Standing Next To Favorite Painting Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night
Monet's Water Lilies 1914-26
Gustav Klimt Hope ll 1907-08
A pregnant woman bows her head and closes her eyes, as if praying for the safety of her child.
Peeping out from behind her stomach is a death's head, sign of the danger she faces. At her feet, three women with bowed heads raise their hands, presumably also in prayer—although their solemnity might also imply mourning, as if they foresaw the child's fate.
Why, then, the painting's title? Although Klimt himself called this work Vision, he had called an earlier, related painting of a pregnant woman Hope.
By association with the earlier work, this one has become known as Hope, II. There is, however, a richness here to balance the women's gravity.
Klimt was among the many artists of his time who were inspired by sources not only within Europe but far beyond it.
He lived in Vienna, a crossroads of East and West, and he drew on such sources as Byzantine art, Mycenean metalwork, Persian rugs and miniatures, the mosaics of the Ravenna churches, and Japanese screens.
In this painting the woman's gold-patterned robe—drawn flat, as clothes are in Russian icons, although her skin is rounded and dimensional—has an extraordinary decorative beauty. Here, birth, death, and the sensuality of the living exist side by side suspended in equilibrium.
I walked all over manhattan until I found my very first Museum.
I knew I wouldn't have alot of time to see everthing so there were certain paintings I had to see the very nice man guarding Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh offered to take my picture with my favorite painting I was very happy.
It was a wonderful day I was deeply moved especially by Gustav Klimt Hope 11 you could feel the sorrow in the painting.
4 comments:
I'd love to go back to New York. I just spent one day there back in '98 and didn't have time to go into the MOMA, just did a little visit to the gift shop. Sounds like you had a great day! Were you humming "Starry, Starry Night" while standing next to the painting?
AS lovely as Hope II is, my first thought was that her shawl reminded me of Kaffe Fassett's work. Guess I'm just more knitter than art lover. Starry Night is one of the paintings I've loved from childhood. I remember thinking "He's nearsighted like me." when I first saw it. Now I think "I wish I was there."
I've always loved Van Gogh, Klimt and Monet, but I've never been a fan of Picasso or Dali.
how nice! i was so on love with monets waterlillies series in high school, i think i had 12 of the 15/17 prints. I agree though, as i have grown i have loved the feel of starry night.
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