Gustav Klimt

Known for: The Kiss (1907–08); Vienna Secession

Gustav Klimt led the Vienna Secession from its founding in 1897 and produced decorative paintings of extreme elaboration — gold leaf, mosaic patterns, Byzantine ornament — that synthesized symbolism, art nouveau, and an erotic directness that caused the Austrian government to reject his commissioned university ceiling paintings as pornographic. The Kiss (1907–08) is among the most recognizable paintings in European modernism. He died in the influenza pandemic of 1918.