The Kiss of Klimt: the most fascinating painter of Vienna's Belle Epoque (TASCHEN's 25th anniversary - Special edition) Gustav Klimt's art is thoroughly fin de si cle. It expresses the apocalyptic atmosphere of Vienna's upper-middle-class society a society devoted to the cultivation of aesthetic awareness and the cult of pleasure. The ecstatic joy which Klimt (1862 1918) and his contemporaries found or hoped to find in beauty was constantly overshadowed by death, and death therefore plays an important role in Klimt's art. Klimt's fame, however, rests on his reputation as one of the greatest erotic painters and graphic artists of his times. Particularly his drawings, which have been widely admired for their artistic excellence, are dominated by the erotic portrayal of women. Klimt saw the world in female form. Author Gottfried Fliedl also discusses the Secession movement and Klimt's role within this important group of artists. The author: After studying art history in Vienna and Marburg, Gottfried Fliedl accepted a lectureship at the Academy of Applied Art in Vienna, where he taught for 10 years before becoming a lecturer in museology at the Universities of Klagenfurt and Vienna.