Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) remains one of the most popular artists of the early 20th century. His sensual, ornate paintings, often charged with eroticism and embellished with gold, have been widely reproduced on book jackets and as best-selling posters, and are familiar to many who know little of the man who made them. Published to accompany a major exhibition at Tate Liverpool, a highlight of that city's 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations and the first such show in the UK, Gustav Klimt explores the life and work of an intriguing figure at the heart of the cultural transformation of Vienna around 1900.

Central to the book is the first thorough examination of the relationship between Klimt's paintings and the work of his close friend the architect and designer Josef Hoffmann. Reaching beyond the two-dimensional arts, it hails the advent of an all-inclusive design culture that embraced interiors, furniture, clothing and jewellery. Essays by leading scholars and curators consider key works, events and developments: the founding of the Viennese Secession, the inaugural display of the Beethoven Frieze, and a series of collaborative ventures in the creation of total domestic environments for the pursuit of 'modern life', among them the Villa Waerndorfer in Vienna and the Villa Primavesi in rural northern Moravia. In addition, Klimt is assessed as both an accomplished erotic draughtsman and a seductive landscape painter. Lavishly illustrated to capture the intensity of Klimt's palette, this publication is a fittingly sumptuous tribute to the achievement of a unique artistic innovator.