The Search For Modern Man

If the artists of the Secession movement were preoccupied with the idea of departing from conventional themes—the classical metaphor, the representation of all thoughts, ideas, trials and tribulations through ancient myths and cautionary tales—then they were left with the daunting task of representing modern man on his own terms, without the help of those old and familiar symbols. That is, as the nineteenth century melts into the twentieth, who is man today, right now, away from the safety-net of historical context? Of course, Klimt does start with those familiar symbols (back to “Pallas Athena”), but now they have, in the manner of the new generation, taken on another meaning altogether—a taste of challenge, a resurgence of new ideas, and a not overly subtle hint of oedipal revolt.
“Nuda Veritas,” the veritable mascot for Secession ideas, first poses the question of identity in the form of a naked woman wielding a blank mirror, waiting for confrontation. She is, in fact, the naked truth, simple and challenging, sensual and chaste. “Nuda Veritas” announces the presence of what Klimt and his contemporaries recognize to be the omnipresent and inescapable modernity of the time. In the end the grand question remains, half answered, on the canvas. As Klimt begins to define man in terms of more internal themes—family, life, death and of course sexuality, he simultaneously reveals the insecurity and anxiety that comes from embracing something radical and new. After all, Klimt is the modern man, and his wishes, desires, joys, fears and agonies are all revealed by his paintbrush.