The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Great Art Explained • Season 2 • Episode 8

About this episode

A group of artists, architects, musicians and social scientists, were experimenting in ways that would transform their individual fields. On the one hand, Vienna was the traditional city of academic art, Johann Strauss, and the Hapsburg empire, but on the other, it was the home of radical artists such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele who were shocking audiences with explorations of sexual themes. Architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos were challenging imperial design, while Gustav Mahler was transforming the musical life of the city. And Sigmund Freud was about to change forever the way we think about the human mind. Vienna was experiencing a new golden age. It was a city at the forefront of modernity, and it would shape the 20th century.