This lecture has been cancelled due to the Coronavirus epidemic
Gustav Klimt’s primary subject was the female body and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Klimt and his colleagues broke away from the imperially endorsed art institutions in Vienna in 1897 and founded the Secession – a movement hoping to create a new style that owed nothing to historical influence. 1897 was also the same year that Gustav Mahler arrived to take charge of the Opera House in the city. Comparing these two totemic fin de siècle talents, this lecture places Klimt and Mahler in context, asking what fundamentally links and, indeed, divides them.
Described by The Times as a ‘leading cultural historian’, Gavin Plumley is well known for his work on Central European music and culture during the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, he writes widely for newspapers, magazines and opera and concert programmes around the world. He appears frequently as a guest and as a presenter on BBC Radio 3 and on BBC Radio 4 and has given lectures for the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall.