Chapter 32 (1) - The Mysterious Art Museum
The program had soon ended.
Again, I had entered at the wrong time.
Well, considering Gustav Klimt's life as a whole, the period when he painted everything in gold was indeed in his middle period, so it was not unexpected that I had missed the beginning of the program.
For a few minutes, as Beethoven's music played and the credits rolled on the screen, the program in the art gallery began again, and I was utterly captivated by the realistic and beautiful paintings that swirled before my eyes.
Such lifelike paintings.
So detailed that it was hard to distinguish whether they were photographs or paintings, filling the large wall.
People unfamiliar with art and history often say this,
"What's so great about Picasso? Even an elementary school student could draw better than that."
But it's not just Picasso.
Many painters who create distinctive works hear such comments.
However, this is a clear misunderstanding.
The Renaissance-era realism, so lifelike that we marvel at it.
We call this traditionalist academicism, but it's not that Picasso or Klimt, Gauguin, and others couldn't paint like this they chose not to. If you look at their early works, you can see realism comparable to Rembrandt or Diego Velzquez.
It's only when they had perfected their own style, after many trials and errors, that they moved beyond realistic painting.
Klimt was no exception.
While we commonly know his works like The Kiss, Judith, and the Tree of Life, dominated by gold and resembling abstract art, he too painted in the traditional academic style in his early days, especially when he worked on murals.
His first work, which I thought of when reflecting on the portrait seen earlier, was Romeo and Juliet.
This piece is a ceiling painting in the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria.
Klimt had painted the theater's decorative art, including ceiling and wall paintings, a task too big for one person, thus he included his younger brother Ernst Klimt and his friend and fellow artist Franz Matsch as collaborators.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience
Then, from its roots, the Tree of Life slowly reemerges, stretching out its branches.
"This is the core value of digital art."
An emotion that cannot be felt by merely looking at a painting.
Digital art is about recreating these emotions, something I realized far too late.
I lose myself in the sight of the golden waves forming the thick trunk of the tree.
From the left, a thick branch emerges, splitting into two slender branches.
The branches twist and curl as they take shape, and between them, the trunk of the tree rises higher, extending new branches.
At that moment,
I feel my head go numb.
It's not an unpleasant headache.
I truly feel joy in this moment.
That same feeling I've experienced several times before.
The feeling of being led into a dream.
My hypothesis was correct.
It didn't have to be the twelve constellations of the zodiac.
Any symbolic painting could take me into a dream.
That's enough, I can continue to dream.
That's all I need.
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