Mada Primavesi 1912

Gustav Klimt painted Mada Primavesi with oil on canvas and seemingly, an endless amount of patience. Look at the way he builds up these layers of paint, creating this wonderful sense of texture, it feels so intuitive. There’s a playful tension here in the details. The dress is a riot of white, almost frothy. But then, you notice these bold, dark, almost scribbled lines defining the hem, so different from the delicate little flowers and subtle mark making of the background. It’s the kind of contrast that wakes you up, keeps you looking. The more you look, the more you get the feeling that Klimt made it up as he went along. I’m reminded of other artists like Matisse, in the way they embraced a decorative, almost flattened space, as if the painting itself is a living thing, constantly shifting and changing. And isn’t that what art is all about, a continuous conversation?