Approaching Thunderstorm 1903

Gustav Klimt’s landscape, Approaching Thunderstorm, feels like it was made with oil paint in a kind of frenzy, a sky scraped back with a palette knife into something almost monochromatic. Look at the way the paint is applied in the foreground, though: the layering of tiny, colorful dabs of paint building up a mass of foliage. Imagine Klimt standing there, patiently, almost obsessively, dotting the canvas, one mark at a time. What was he thinking about as he stood there, building up this texture? Did he feel exposed? The material elements of the painting work together: the thickness of the foliage is juxtaposed against the thinness of the atmospheric sky. This way of seeing and experiencing the world connects him to other painters like Monet and Van Gogh, who were also trying to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. These painters keep inspiring each other's creativity across time. Painting as a form of embodied expression embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.