Naked Models Bring Your Favorite Gustav Klimt Paintings to Life for Charity

Your favorite Klimt paintings, transformed into high-end fashion photography.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Photographer Inge Prader has brought the glittering paintings of Gustav Klimt to life.

His latest series recreates some of the Austrian artist’s most iconic works using live models. The sumptuous-looking images were taken for this year’s Viennese Secessionist-themed Life Ball, an annual event that seeks to raise funds to help fight HIV/AIDS.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting.
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

 

“Breaking out of old ways and advancing one’s own individuality and self-determination; this was the core idea of the Viennese Secessionists,” said Life Ball’s Gery Kesler, in a statement, of the evening’s theme.

“The values of the avant-garde movement thus form a wonderful metaphor for the Life Ball, which has fought from its inception both for active steps towards health and for a conscious confrontation with and the overcoming of social barriers, taboos and stigmas.”

Gustav Klimt, Death and Life (1916). Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Gustav Klimt, Death and Life (1916).
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Inge Prader's recreation of Gustav Klimt's <em>Death and Life</em> (1916). Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of Gustav Klimt’s Death and Life (1916).
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Prader’s photographs are based on paintings from Klimt’s Golden Phase (1899–1910), which often incorporated gold leaf to stunning effect. Perhaps the best-known work from this period is The Kiss (1907–08). The ball took the color gold as its inspiration.

Unsurprisingly, Klimt’s work lends itself perfectly to a high-end fashion photo shoot.

And the pictures look amazing. Nearly 100 years after his death in 1918, Klimt’s luminous paintings continue to capture the imagination, in particular his dazzling Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), subject of this summer’s exhibition at the Neue Galerie.

Gustav Klimt, <em>Beethoven Frieze</em> (detail), 1901. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze (detail), 1901.
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Detail of Inge Prader's recreation of Gustav Klimt's <em>Beethoven Frieze</em> (1901). Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Detail of Inge Prader’s recreation of Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze (1901).
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

The golden canvas also recently had a star turn in the Weinstein Company’s Woman in Gold. The film, starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, recounts the true story of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann‘s struggle to reclaim the portrait and four other Klimt paintings that belonged to her aunt decades after they were stolen by the Nazis.

As for Klimt’s market, it’s more robust than ever, thanks largely to the film-inspiring canvas, which ushered the artist into the elite $100 million club when it sold for $135 million in 2006, at the time a record sum for a work of art sold in any venue.

Gustav Klimt, <em>Danae</em> (1907). Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Gustav Klimt, Danae (1907).
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Inge Prader's recreation of Gustav Klimt's <em>Danae</em> (1907). Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of Gustav Klimt’s Danae (1907).
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Gustav Klimt, <em>Beethoven Frieze</em> (detail), 1901. Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze (detail), 1901.
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons.

Detail of Inge Prader's recreation of Gustav Klimt's <em>Beethoven Frieze</em> (1901). Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Detail of Inge Prader’s recreation of Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze (1901).
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting.
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting.
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting.
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader's recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting. Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of a Gustav Klimt painting.
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader's recreation of Gustav Klimt's <em>Beethoven Frieze</em> (1901). Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.

Inge Prader’s recreation of Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze (1901).
Photo: Life Ball, © Inge Prader.