#freya's tears

[bodyalive]

Artwork: 'Freya's Tears' by Anne Marie Zilberman

* * * *

Your suffering needs to be respected. Don't try to ignore the hurt, because it is real. Just let it soften you instead of hardening you. Let the hurt open you instead of closing you. Let the hurt send you looking for those who will accept you, instead of hiding from those who reject you.

~ Bryant McGill

(Psychiatry With Soul)

[oberynmartell]

art history meme [2/9] paintings — golden tears (or freya’s tears) by anne marie zilberman

[offeringstofreyja]

Freya's Tears by PsycheOphiuchus

[anotherconservator]

Freya’s Tears

[michaelgfuckfford]

my version on Freya’s Tears

[ociodvode]

Freya’s tears - Anne-Marie Zylberman

[lauracamilars]

[winterjourney]

I had to get this out in the open.

“All art is erotic.” Every website which collects quotes attributes that one to Klimt. I can understand why. It's the sexy, unmarried, horny artist image. Erotic art! Naked models! European decadence! Steamy sensuality! Unashamed carnality and look – hair when you usually don't see it in Western art! Yep, if anyone has a right to say all art is erotic, it's our man in Vienna, Gustav. He walked the walk, after all, so who better? He was all about sex, right?

The plain fact is, no matter how many websites and tumblr uploads say it, Gustav Klimt never wrote or said "All art is erotic." Who did? A contemporary of Klimt's – who didn't like Klimt or his art.

Irony can be so ironic.

The actual writer of those words said it in a book which was very anti-Klimt. Adolf Loos – that's who wrote the line; Adolf Loos - wrote it in 1908 and included it in his 1910 lecture "Ornament and Crime." Loos' essay made it clear that ornament, the sort employed by Klimt, the Vienna Secession and, indeed, the entire Art Nouveau movement, was degenerate and immoral. Loos thought tattoos were sick, sick, sick, and felt revulsion at cultures such as those in New Guinea who practiced tattooing. According to Loos, those cultures have "not evolved to the moral and civilized circumstances of modern man, who, should he tattoo himself, would either be considered a criminal or a degenerate."

To have Loos’ words attributed to Klimt is like having the words of a conservative classical music critic attributed to Freddie Mercury.

As for “Freya’s Tears,” it was done by Anne-Marie Zilberman. In high resolution versions, you can see her signature at the bottom edge. Whatever its strengths or weakness as art, it barely looks like something by Klimt. Yet, you can find it all over the internet – yes, even on tumblr! - as exactly that; a painting by Klimt.

So, when I see things like this, I contact whoever made these errors. So far, it's accomplished nothing. There's either no response or a defensive request for more information which, when provided, leads to total silence. I understand how it hurts to be wrong but, trust me, it feels ever better to be right.

Please, pass it on. Share it with others. Strike and easy blow for Art! For Truth! For Gustav!