Gustav Klimt iconic 'The Kiss' on his 150th Birthday Anniversary Google Doodle

If you’ve not visited Google today you are missing ‘The Kiss’, well it’s a painting by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt painted in 1907-08, the highpoint of his ‘Golden Period’, when he painted a number of works in a similar gilded style.

The Google Logo today, 14th July 2012, has been carved in and around ‘The Kiss’ celebrating Gustav Klimt’s 150th Birthday Anniversary.

He was known for being scandalous, but also for staying true to his passions – both on canvas and in his romantic affairs. Artist Gustav Klimt was born 150 years ago in a Vienna that was a bit too conservative for him.

Each of the fifty prints were categorized among five themes:

Allegorical (which included multicolored prints of The Golden Knight, 1903 and The Virgin, c.1912)
Mythical/Biblical (Pallas Athena, 1898; Judith and The Head of Holofernes, 1901; and Danaë, c.1908)
Portraits (Emilie Flöge, 1902)
Erotic-Symbolist (Water Serpents I and II, both c.1907-08 and The Kiss, c.1908)
Landscapes (The Sunflower, c. 1906.)

His most famous painting, “The Kiss,” has been reproduced in every way thinkable – on coffee cups, glasses cases, shopping bags and dozens of other everyday items.

In 1907, Klimt painted what would become one of his most famous works – the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the daughter of a Viennese banker, with strikingly realistic facial features and a hefty portion of gold. It became the most expensive artwork in the world when it sold to an American businessman for $135 million in 2006.

That Klimt’s excessive use of gold was often criticized as kitschy didn’t bother the artist, according to Weidinger. “Klimt was an academic painter,” he explained. “Klimt’s work didn’t have anything to do with classical painting. He used the variety of materials that he had worked with during his schooling. It was painted applied arts.”