Art-Klimpt-Woman In Gold TB2

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-19, the owner released a total of 3,793 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 10-Feb-24 this trackable had survived for 7.1 years and had been moved by 49 cachers, for an average drop every 53 days, or 6.9 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

I have already released series of art-themed travel bugs based on works I have seen in person.  I will continue the series mostly including works I simply admire.  There will also be famous works or works by famous artists that I otherwise do not particularly care for, but they are….well,..famous.  My disdain extends to most Modern Art and a good amount from the Pop Art movement.

Gustav Klimt (July, 1862 – February, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist.  Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and most of his works are marked by a frank eroticism.  In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes.  Klimt was influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner.  As he developed a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic.  He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his "golden phase," many of which include gold leaf. 

The art work featured on this travel bug is an example of his gold leaf work and is decidedly not pornographic.  It is a portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, completed in 1907.  In 2006 it was purchased for the Neue Galerie New York by Ronald Lauder reportedly for US $135 million, surpassing Picasso's 1905 Boy With a Pipe (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million), as the highest reported price ever paid for a painting.  The history and contested ownership of the painting, during and after WWII, was the subject of the movie “Woman in Gold.”