ART
Born in Baumgarten, Austria, Gustav Klimt was a symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau movement. Gustav Klimt's major works include paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects with the female body as his primary subject. From 1876 to 1883, Klimt attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and in 1879 he started working with his brother Ernst Klimt on decorative paintings, designed for public buildings in Vienna, Bucharest and Rijeka. In 1897, Klimt was one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession and was chairman until he resigned in 1905.
Klimt's work, especially his later work, is defined through the use of intensive colors, golden backgrounds, ornamental layouts, erotic elements and heavy symbolism. Distinguished by elegant gold or coloured decoration, his work is often phallic in shape capturing erotic positions. One of the most common themes Klimt utilized was that of the dominant woman.
Art historians note an eclectic range of influences contributing to Klimt's distinct style, including Egyptian, Minoan, Classical Greek and Byzantine inspirations. Klimt created a new and highly individual style in the Austrian art world breaking conventional academic ideals. Although his work was sometimes known to be controversial, he had a strong influence on the cultural world and established himself as a very popular painter in the Viennese society.
Source: http://www.wikipedia.org
A protégé of Gustav Klimt and a major figurative painter of the early 20th century, Egon Schiele is known for his intensity and large number of self-portraits depicted through twisted body shapes. Schiele was born in Tulln, Austria, attended school in Krems and Klosterneuburg, and later enrolled in the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Vienna in 1906 where he studied painting and drawing. After becoming frustrated by the school's conservatism, Schiele left Vienna in 1911 to live in several small villages where he concentrated increasingly on self-portraits and allegories of life, death and sex. Schiele died at only 28 years old from influenza.
Source: http://www.wikipedia.org