Adriana Czernin, Gustav Klimt and Ivan Milev

Adriana Czernin, Untitled

Adriana Czernin is a successful Bulgarian artist living in Vienna since 1990. Many art critics compare her to Gustav Klimt and the tradition of Jugendstil (http://www.answers.com/topic/jugendstil)

When asked by a reporter for an art magazine in Bulgaria weather she wanted to find a place in this Austrian Art Nouveau she denied being directly influenced by Klimt. Czernin explained that she in fact found inspiration in the works of Ivan Milev, a Bulgarian artist who created his own original interpretation of Jugendstil, combining it with the local folk art and icon painting.

Here is what Czernin says about the influence Milev had on her work:

"I had a book with reproductions of his work, and I looked at it for a very long time. I was fascinated with the decorative, the flatness of shapes, by the situation of figures and their surroundings in which the foreground and the background begin to change their places and roles. When I later discover Klimt in Vienna, it seemed to me that there was more power in the style of Ivan Milev, more tragedy, as if Klimt's style was more decorative."(Capital)

Ivan Milev, Self-portrait

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