I am an art lover, I studied art history in my later school days. One of my favourite artists is Gustav Klimt, I’ve always loved his embellished gold leaf paintings conveying passion and womanhood, when I started to read and understand more about his life and work my interest grew but as with many things this curiosity was lost amongst the years and hectic demands of life.
Now a student midwife, mother of three children and a business owner, life is more complicated and stressful (in a ‘first-world’ problems sort of way) than ever. Time away from the bustle is rare, then add on the pressures of a degree – you think you’re managing but then all of a sudden your confidence comes crashing down. How do you feel? And what can you do to pick yourself up?
As a great believer in strength of mind and being that I am a little philosophical I clung on to that old saying
‘what you need will come to you in perfect time’.
So allowing my mind to wander I sifted through feeling hurt, disappointed and angry and as the days went by my heart lifted a little. I went to the places where I found comfort and healed some more. I rested and tasked myself with productive things, I dipped in and out of books – reading for pleasure. I watched TV, I spent a lot of time on twitter, I made an infographic about being a tall poppy – nothing to do with work or university!
Over the last week I stumbled upon Klimt’s painting of Danaë, she symbolises the victory of passion and creativity over repression and something struck a chord. I thought back to what I learned about Klimt some 17 years ago. I want to share a couple of paragraphs about him, his work and some of the similarities that I made. This process lifted my spirits and placed me right back in the centre of my own universe with a better understanding of the path I’d chosen and what I need to do to move forward.
First I was touched by the fact that I was now actively doing what I first became enamoured by when I saw Klimt’s work – Klimt’s paintings embody many elements of sexuality, reproduction, motherhood, life and death and I thought this was significant in my position training to be a midwife – with woman. The story depicted here is Danaë imprisoned by her father, King of Argos. Danaë was visited by Zeus, symbolised here as the golden rain flowing between her legs. It is apparent from her face that she is aroused by the golden stream. Interestingly Zeus’s stream of golden coins with another stream of circular forms had eluded art historians for decades. It took the eyes of an american biologist Scott Gilbert to identify these shapes as early embryonic forms – blastocysts to be precise drifting down the right side of the painting (Maxmen, 2010). It was later learnt that Klimt acquired such knowledge and a passion for embryology at evening soirees of scientific lectures held by a leading anatomist in Vienna back in the late nineteenth century. There he saw slides of blood vessels, brain cells and other microscopic wonders and then went on to incorporate this symbolism into his art (Gilbert & Brauckmann, 2011).
In this painting we see three women at different stages of life. The youngest is the baby, representing infancy, who in turn is being cradled in the arms of the mother, who is an adult representing motherhood. The third figure, on the left of the group is the old woman who represents old age. The background of this image is a sea of silver bubbles but the three figures are closely surrounded by unusual shapes. Again the shapes are significant and relevant – the shapes floating above the head of the younger women resemble colonies of bacteria, whilst the older woman stands amid the elongated protozoa, which is associated with death and decomposition (my daily art display, 2011). I then reflected on the insight Klimt gave us at such an early stage of scientific understanding, even today our knowledge of the microbiome and epigenetics is in its infancy (Harmon, 2009). Here was another link to my journey, my first mentor and skin to skin advocate Jenny Clarke (@JennytheM) – a wonderful, kind and courageous woman who I am very thankful for. I was reminded of the film Microbirth which I watched in my first days as a student midwife, I remembered feelings of excitement.
Klimt wasn’t just a painter and a writer, he had a passion for teaching, nurturing and exploring new ideas. Klimt became one of the founding members and president of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) in 1897. The objectives of the group were to provide exhibitions for unconventional young artists, to bring the works of the best foreign artists to Vienna, and to publish its own periodical to showcase the work of members. The group declared no manifesto and did not set out to encourage any particular style —Naturalists, Realists, and Symbolists all coexisted (Moffat, 2008). Here I made another link, to the #MatExp campaign on twitter. This campaign instigated by Gill Phillips and Florence Wilcox is part of the larger NHS Changeday initiative but has grown through Twitter and thrives on communication between women, mothers, families, students, midwives, obstetricians and other health care workers from across the globe. Like Klimt’s group there is no hierarchy, individuality is encouraged and we all exist as one team. It is championed by many passionate individuals all who support innovation, empower that process and want to make a change for the benefit of all those who are part of the childbirth continuum. It is a beautiful collaboration which breaks down barriers, promoting a bottom-up/grassroots approach which nurtures everyone’s ideas and opinions.
Klimt was a #changemaker – he didn’t always at the time fully observe the politics of Austrian society and his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed for the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna were criticised for their radical themes and branded “pornographic”. Unfortunately all three paintings were destroyed by retreating Nazi forces in 1945. Here I reflected on the theme of change, being different and stepping out of the mould. I thought about many of the stories in the fantastic book ‘Roar behind the Silence’ edited by Sheena Byrom and Soo Downe – another testament to the collaboration of many providing valuable insight to others and the importance of overcoming challenge.
Klimt painted ‘Nuda Veritas’ or ‘The Truth’ inscribed with the quote by Friedrich Schiller translated
“If you can’t please everybody with your deeds and your art please only few. To please many is dangerous”.
The mirror in her hand is suggested to reflect the art exposed – so modern art is the truth. Here I thought about Midwifery, an art form in itself – about being a midwife and what I can bring to the profession. The honesty of our work, being true and honest with women, showing proper care and compassion, facing up to our mistakes, accepting the challenges of our profession and modern day midwifery as a whole. These are all big questions.
Through admiring Klimt’s work and soaking up the representational imagery I reminded myself that today is no different to Klimt’s era and no different to the times of those who will roam the earth after us. Challenges are faced by many every day, we will ask questions, we will use the looking glass, we will still seek the truth and want make things better. But importantly we will never be able to please everyone and we must be satisfied with this reality.
Klimt’s iconic masterpieces are known for their symbolism, through taking some personal time, I found my own symbolic representations – I remembered how far I’d come in a short time, I remembered I am on a journey and I found some of the strength I need to move forward.
References
Gilbert, S., & Brauckmann, S. (2011). Fertilization Narratives in the Art of Gustav Klimt, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo: Repression, Domination and Eros among Cells. Leonardo, 44(3), 221-227. doi:10.1162/leon_a_00166
Harmon, K. (2009). Bugs Inside: What Happens When the Microbes That Keep Us Healthy Disappear?. Scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-microbiome-change/
Maxmen,. (2010). CultureLab: Gustav Klimt’s mysterious embryos. Newscientist.com. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/11/gustav-klimts-mysterious-embryos.html
Moffat, C. (2008). Gustav Klimt – Symbolist Painter – The Art History Archive. Arthistoryarchive.com. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/symbolism/Gustav-Klimt.html
my daily art display,. (2011). Three Ages of Woman by Gustav Klimt. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from https://mydailyartdisplay.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/three-ages-of-woman-by-gustav-klimt/
Wikipedia,. (2015). Gustav Klimt. Retrieved 1 June 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt
heartfelt midwifery 