Bauerngarten

About this work

Klimt spent every summer on the Attersee in Austria, and there painted "Bauerngarten" in 1907. It has no horizon and no sky — only a wall of flowers filling the canvas to its edge. It was shown at the 1908 Kunstschau, the same exhibition as "The Kiss".

A true pair to "The Kiss": the same working period, the same 100×100 cm square, and exactly the same number of working days. Klimt showed the two together; Rami Alon made them back to back over nearly a hundred and twenty days.

This garden has no figure to organise the eye — only density. Mosaic meets density one way: by cutting the stone smaller until a flower becomes possible.