New York City is getting a permanent immersive exhibition space, with a debut show dedicated to none other than Gustav Klimt.
Who remembers, The Kiss? Composed of a man and woman locked in an eternal embrace upon a bed of flowers, it’s one of the most iconic art nouveau paintings and arguably one of the most romantic pieces of art ever created.
Painted by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt at the height of his Golden Period, it contains many signatures: heavy symbolism, erotic undertones, and decorative embellishments of gold leaf, platinum, and silver.
Do you remember way back in 2016 when Oprah Winfrey sold Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) for an earth-shattering $150 million? Yep, that’s him.
Born in 1862, Austrian painter Gustav Klimt became known for his highly decorative style and erotic nature, which were seen as a rebellion against the traditional academic art of his time.
His most famous paintings are The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
This was the Adele Bloch-Bauer that was sold to the Neue Galerie in New York City for a then-record price of $135 million in 2006.
Just like the Van Gogh immersive experience where art lovers and enthusiasts alike get to walk through a projected version of his starry nights physically, we can now walk into a building that aims to make this experience concrete.
It was created by the same partnership between Exhibition Hub and Fever that brought the Van Gogh: The Immersive life experience – instead, this time comes Klimt: The Immersive Experience.
The show will display more than 200 works by the artist in a mind-boggling floor-to-ceiling, 360-degree format. This summer, the 33,000-square-foot building will be re-christened inside a Lower Manhattan landmark and is set to debut “Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion”.
Now Klimt fans can experience The Kiss and other works like Judith and the Head of Holofernes at three different immersive digital art experiences in 13 cities across North America in 2022.
Venues include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, Atlanta, New York and more.
According to Artnet, the company is expecting significant interest: it drew more than 1.4 million visitors each year to its immersive Van Gogh experience in Paris.
Here are the following venues:
When: January 2022–February 28, 2022
Where: Area 15
When: July 21–September 30, 2022
Where: To be announced