1994 After Gustav Klimt, "Hygieia" First German Edition Poster

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A stunning poster after Hygieia (1900-19007, fragment from "Medicine", ceiling panel for the Vienna University auditorium) by Gustav Klimt (1862 … Read more A stunning poster after Hygieia (1900-19007, fragment from "Medicine", ceiling panel for the Vienna University auditorium) by Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918), oil on canvas, 14.11' x 9.85', destroyed by fire at Immendorf castle in 1945. Second German Edition as a poster. Printed on a board of heavy paper, on one side. First German edition as a poster. Excellent condition - minor edge wear, never framed. Germany, 1994.

Overall 12"W x 17"H

Vienna of "La Belle Epoque" was famous for the exceptional quality and wide scope of its cultural activities. And Gustav Klimt was the most representative and most fascinating of the city's painters at the time. True to his revolutionary nature, Klimt was a founding member and president of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists constituted in protest against official academic norms and conservative bourgeois values.

Another trait of Klimt's was his cult of Woman, in all plump fullness of her flesh, her femininity, her loving - and fatal - attraction. This trait led him to emphasize the importance of sexuality as determining aspect of life, in the same vein of thought as Freud.

Klimt had no qualms about creating a scandal with "Medicine", a work which, with Hygieia as its central figure, underscores medicine's importance - rather than praising its merits - in the face of Destiny's indomitable power. Klimt's goddess of health is depicted turning her back on humanity (not visible in this poster). Her indifference and haughty stance allude to the siren in her person, rather than to any enlighteningly symbolic role with respect to science. Life and the erotic manifestation thereof can be summed up as the struggle between Eros and Thanatos, a philosophical outlook Klimt took to heart. The work to which "Hygieia" belongs represents the Nietzschean "eternal return" according to which death is pivotal to life. See less