Poetic Responses to Gustav Klimt

In 2018, which marked 100 years since his death, Bradford Literature Festival and Hay Festival teamed up for an exciting event with three poets responding to works by renowned Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

Working in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Klimt is one of the crown jewels of Austria’s symbolist movement. The movement initially appeared in poetry before being embraced by painters and represented a response to the trend of realism by which contemporary artists were defined. 

Influenced heavily by Japanese art and the methods used to create it, which differ markedly from European methods, Klimt’s most famous works are The Kiss (1908) and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). 

Three poets were commissioned to respond to the works of Klimt: Aviva Dautch, a British poet of Eastern European ancestry who teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the British Library; Shazea Quraishi, a Canadian-born Pakistani poet whose poems have appeared in The Financial Times, The Guardian and more; and Jo Brandon, a Yorkshire-based British poet whose collections have been published by Valley Press. 

At a sold-out event, the three poets explained how Klimt’s work has inspired their writing. The event provided a fantastic and rare opportunity to explore the influences on contemporary writers, marrying together modern and historical the celebrate the great painter. 

They analysed the social and artistic context in which Klimt’s paintings were created and illuminated much more about the famous Austrian’s life and work, celebrating not just the paintings themselves but the man, as well as the inspiration he became for artists of all disciplines who followed in his footsteps. 

As this was a collaboration with Hay Festival, all three poets performed their responses at both festivals, and their worked were well received by audiences. 

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