Max Klinger
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Max Klinger (1857-1920) was a Germany|German Symbolism (arts)|symbolist painter, sculpture|sculptor and printmaker.
His best known work was a series of etchings entitled Paraphrases about the finding of a glove. These pictures were based on images which came to Klinger in dreams after finding a glove at an ice-skating rink. In the leitmotic device of a glove - belonging to a woman whose face we never see - Klinger anticipated the research of Freud and Kraft-Ebbing on fetish objects. In this case, the glove becomes a symbol for the artist's romantic yearnings, finding itself, in each plate, in different dramatic situations, and performing the role that we might expect the figure of the beloved herself to fulfil.Semioticians have also seen in the symbol of the glove an example of a sliding signifier, or signifier without signified - in this case, the identity of the woman which Klinger is careful to conceal. The plates therefore seem to function on a more symbolic or surrealist level, suggesting various psychological states or existential crises faced by the artist protagonist (who bears a striking resemblance to the young Klinger).
Klinger is cited by many artists (notably Giorgio de Chirico) as being a major link between the symbolist movement of the 19th century and the start of the metaphysical art|metaphysical and surrealism|surrealist movements of the 20th century.
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