Recent technical analysis has shed new light on Gustav Klimt’s working methods and artistic practice. Glimpses beneath the layers of paint offer an insight into the process behind the paintings’ creation. On occasion these have revealed surprising divergences between the preliminary drawing and the final work.

The exhibition also explores how Klimt made his legendary gold paintings. How did he apply gold to the canvas? Macroscopic images reveal that Klimt exclusively used precious gold leaf for his pictures. Included in the show will be Klimt’s iconic painting Judith, one of the artist’s first works to incorporate gold.

Finally, the exhibition presents a hypothetical reconstruction of the colors of Klimt’s so-called Faculty Paintings. These monumental canvases depicting allegories of Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence were commissioned for the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna, although the paintings were never displayed in their intended location. They were destroyed in a fire in the final days of World War II. Black-and-white photographs were the only documents of their appearance. In collaboration with Google Arts and Culture, their original colors have now been reconstructed using artificial intelligence.

(Curated by Franz Smola)