A mosaic in green

Last week's painting that fascinated me most was Gustav Klimt's "The Park" at the Museum of Modern Art.

Gustav Klimt, The Park, 1910 or earlier

Gertrud A. Mellon Fund

Instead of not seeing the wood for the trees, in this case you hardly don't see the trees for the thousand leaves.

Only the tree trunks in the lower part of the painting give us the hint that the green mosaic above are crowns of trees. In this painting Klimt shows us an extremly fragmentary view of the Schlosspark of Kammer on Lake Attersee. This is the most abstract painting Klimt ever accomplished. (Klimt Museum, 2014)

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter and one of the most famous representatives of Viennese Jugendstil, also called Vienna Secession. Klimt is well known for ornamental abstraction, which we see in The Park in the mosaic made of green, yellow, blue, black and white strokes. In contrast to this colorful bustle are the rather static firs in the lower right corner. Due to their unproportional size and almost dark green color you might see them only at second glance.

Gustav Klimt, Hope, II, 1907-08

Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder and Helen Acheson Funds, and Serge Sabarsky

The Museum of Modern Art owns several pieces of work by Gustav Klimt including Hope, II, a depiction of pregnancy. This is one of many examples within Klimt's oeuvre where the ornate decoration nearly overwhelms its surface.