Hope I 1903

Gustav Klimt made "Hope I" sometime around 1903, probably using oil on canvas. Look at how he's handled the surface, it's not smooth or blended. The paint sits there, almost crusty in places. The whole thing is a riot of texture. Klimt wasn’t trying to hide the process. He’s letting us see all the little decisions, the starts and stops. It’s like he’s saying, "Here’s the mess, here’s the struggle, but here’s also the beauty that comes out of it." Take the gold detailing, for instance. It's so opulent but then right next to it there’s this rough, almost crude handling of the woman's body. It's the juxtaposition of these things that gives the work its power, don't you think? Think about other artists like Egon Schiele, who also used the body to explore really intense emotions. It's all part of this ongoing conversation about what it means to be human.