Chapter 32 (1) - The Mysterious Art Museum
The program had soon ended.
Again, I had entered at the wrong time.
Well, considering Gustav Klimt's life as a whole, the period when he painted everything in gold was indeed in his middle period, so it was not unexpected that I had missed the beginning of the program.
For a few minutes, as Beethoven's music played and the credits rolled on the screen, the program in the art gallery began again, and I was utterly captivated by the realistic and beautiful paintings that swirled before my eyes.
Such lifelike paintings.
So detailed that it was hard to distinguish whether they were photographs or paintings, filling the large wall.
People unfamiliar with art and history often say this,
"What's so great about Picasso? Even an elementary school student could draw better than that."
But it's not just Picasso.
Many painters who create distinctive works hear such comments.
However, this is a clear misunderstanding.
The Renaissance-era realism, so lifelike that we marvel at it.
We call this traditionalist academicism, but it's not that Picasso or Klimt, Gauguin, and others couldn't paint like this they chose not to. If you look at their early works, you can see realism comparable to Rembrandt or Diego Velzquez.
It's only when they had perfected their own style, after many trials and errors, that they moved beyond realistic painting.
Klimt was no exception.
While we commonly know his works like The Kiss, Judith, and the Tree of Life, dominated by gold and resembling abstract art, he too painted in the traditional academic style in his early days, especially when he worked on murals.
His first work, which I thought of when reflecting on the portrait seen earlier, was Romeo and Juliet.
This piece is a ceiling painting in the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria.
Klimt had painted the theater's decorative art, including ceiling and wall paintings, a task too big for one person, thus he included his younger brother Ernst Klimt and his friend and fellow artist Franz Matsch as collaborators.
What's unique about this work is that unlike many artists who have depicted a single scene from Shakespeare's plays, Klimt illustrated both the actors performing the play and the audience watching it.
In this scene, Romeo commits suicide by poison in front of a cold Juliet.
The despair felt by the lovers as their passionate love ends in tragedy.
The immersion conveyed by the audience, who, shocked by the play's progression, lean forward from their seats towards the stage.
The intense emotion evoked by the ceiling painting makes it seem as if one has watched an entire play just by looking at it.
I smiled slightly, watching the right side of the painting I had only seen in small scale in my school textbooks.
"The man in red clothes standing next to the right pillar is Ernst Klimt, the one with the black hat is Franz Matsch. And next to them, the person with the ornately wrapped ruff around his neck, standing out, is Gustav Klimt himself."
This painting is one of only two self-portraits left by Klimt.
The other is a bizarre drawing that resembles a modern caricature, with only facial features and the body drawn as a chicken.
As Klimt's early works flashed by, and the golden era began, I adjusted my seat.
The first painting to appear was one of his masterpieces, 'The Tree of Life'.
I remembered what my professor once said about this painting,
"According to the Book of Revelation, this tree brings salvation to the pagans, and it's a symbolic work of Klimt's golden age, where he used gold. The Tree of Life is a symbol that integrates all important themes for humans, such as the birth and transformation of seasons, death of flora, and the integration of flowers and women."
In this enchanting world, resembling a paradise where people share love,
Trees and women dance and merge as one.
In a world where women become trees, they flourish across the entirety of nature.
The girl dancing beneath a tree seems to be waiting for something,
And the lovers embracing under another tree imply a sense of fulfillment.
The birds of prey perched on the branches symbolize death, yet even death is a part of nature's order, a component of the cycle of life. Klimt's Tree of Life is filled with mystery and vitality.
Just as I am captivated by the exquisite beauty of the painting, the trees disappear from the picture, leaving only the background.
Then, from its roots, the Tree of Life slowly reemerges, stretching out its branches.
"This is the core value of digital art."
An emotion that cannot be felt by merely looking at a painting.
Digital art is about recreating these emotions, something I realized far too late.
I lose myself in the sight of the golden waves forming the thick trunk of the tree.
From the left, a thick branch emerges, splitting into two slender branches.
The branches twist and curl as they take shape, and between them, the trunk of the tree rises higher, extending new branches.
At that moment,
I feel my head go numb.
It's not an unpleasant headache.
I truly feel joy in this moment.
That same feeling I've experienced several times before.
The feeling of being led into a dream.
My hypothesis was correct.
It didn't have to be the twelve constellations of the zodiac.
Any symbolic painting could take me into a dream.
That's enough, I can continue to dream.
That's all I need.
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