Jorie Graham and Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt is an amazingly talented artist. You can view the same painting of his over and over and find some beautiful new detail each time. It is easy to see how a poet would be inspired to write about his artwork. Jorie Graham chose to compose a poem inspired by two of Gustav Klimt's paintings, and weave the two together through her words. Klimt's art is full of expression, color, detailed images and beauty, which translate into a poem that touches your senses with it's imagery. Jorie Graham found a common thread, "the blue air, the yellow trees," and "The fabric....it's blues and yellows," and she also compares the chips on the bark on the beech trees to the flaws of a beautiful human body, which was present in the second painting. It is interesting how she chose to take these so very different paintings and blend them into a poem that can be interpreted in many ways. It would be fun to see how different artists would illustrate the poem with no prior knowledge of the art it was based on. The image in my mind was one of a forest of trees with abstract human figures blended among them almost imperceptibly except for one with flowing beauty and color. Quite different than the actual art of the paintings "Beeches" and "The Bride" which were painted by Gustav Klimt and written about by Jorie Graham. Gustav Klimt produced many pieces of art and a painting of his recently sold for 135 million dollars to an Ronald S. Lauder of the Estee Lauder cosmetics company. The painting a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, an Austrian socialite, was done in 1907. Lauder has said this portrait is the Mona Lisa of his collection. Having viewed many Gustav Klimt's art at various online galleries I was drawn to "Mother and Child" a detailed part of his painting "The Three Ages of Women". Gutav Klim't artworkan be viewed at http://www.gustavklimtcollection.com/pages/main.html .