The Beethoven Frieze: The Longing for Happiness. Left wall 1902

Gustav Klimt made this part of the Beethoven Frieze with paint and mixed media. Look at how Klimt uses tiny dots and delicate lines; it’s like he's building the image from the ground up, embracing the art-making as a process. There's a tension between the flatness of the surface and the depth he creates with color and texture. The gold armor, it's not just decorative, it is like this solid, grounded form, while the figures reaching out are so ephemeral, like they might disappear. Those reaching figures make me think of Egon Schiele, also Austrian, who was so good at capturing raw emotion and vulnerability. Art is this ongoing dialogue, right? Klimt might have been influenced by the past, but he was also speaking to the future. To me, the ambiguity is the point, it lets us bring our own longings to it.