Gustav Klimt Research Articles

Freud's Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 1918-1938 (review)

Reviewed by: Freud's Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 1918-1938 Eli Zaretsky Elizabeth Ann Danto . Freud's Free Clinics: Psychoanalysis and Social Justice, 1918-1938. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. xi + 348 pp. Ill. $29.50 (0-231-13180-1). Against the background of today's multiculturalism and identity politics, Freud's emphasis on the individual sometimes seems conservative, but Elizabeth Ann Danto situates psychoanalysis in the context of the breakdown of nineteenth-century class society, where its inherent radicalism clearly emerges. The psychoanalytic emphasis on individual emancipation, she demonstrates, had a natural relation to social democracy, women's emancipation, and modernist cultural experiments. The result is a profound revision, not only of our understanding of the history of psychoanalysis, but of twentieth-century medicine as well. Whereas Carl Schorske's well-known work shows the importance of the modernist context of Adolf Loos, Gustav Klimt, and Gustav Mahler in establishing Freud's radical focus on sexuality and psychological interiority, not enough attention has been paid to fin de siècle Vienna's mutation into "Red Vienna." Thus Danto's book begins in Vienna in the years immediately following World War I. Vienna's social democratic government, responding to the breakup of the Hapsburg Empire, sponsored large-scale housing, educational, and public health reforms. Often these were combined with cultural experimentation—for example, with Schoenberg's "new music," or with modernist architecture or urban planning. Weimar Berlin provides Danto's other focus of attention. Given credibility by its unique response to the war neuroses ("shell shock"), psychoanalysis was integral to the political and cultural life of both cities. Although Freud once described himself as a "liberal of the old school" (p. 226), Danto quite accurately portrays him as a social democrat, fully involved in many governmental efforts. As Professor of Social Work, Danto lays particular stress on the sensitivity of psychoanalysis to the social environment and on the significance of making it widely available. As the heir to an earlier tradition of atheistic, politically reformist doctors, Freud certainly grasped this significance. In 1918, he wrote: "the poor man should have just as much right to assistance for his mind as he now has to the life-saving help offered by surgery." As Danto shows, all analysts donated about a fifth of their time to free or low-cost analysis. Not just in Vienna but also in Berlin, London, Prague, Budapest, Zagreb, and elsewhere, psychoanalysts worked along with sympathetic governments or philanthropists to establish polyclinics, ambulatoria, and sex-education centers. Since professional, institutionalized psychoanalysis had barely begun before World War I, Danto's work makes it possible to distinguish two ideal types of analytic practice: on the one hand, a socially aware, affordable, practical orientation closely linked to movements for social justice; on the other hand, the expensive, elite, mystified practice that developed in the United States after World War I, and that did so much harm to its cause and (according to some accounts) to some patients. Not incidentally, Freud's political awareness extended beyond social democratic issues to a critique of the "American century." Americans, he [End Page 783] wrote to Ernest Jones in 1921, have little "'Gemeinsinn' [community spirit] and tendency for organisation . . . . [C]ompetition is much more pungent with them, not succeeding means civil death" (p. 81). Danto not only uses the social and political history to illuminate the history of psychoanalysis, she also uses an essentially Freudian perspective on human nature to temper the utopianism of such psychoanalytic radicals as Wilhelm Reich. Thus, the social democratic reform impulse that followed World War I was not immune to anti-Semitism, reactionary populism, and nationalism and other atavistic appeals. These triumphed in Germany in 1933, of course, and in Vienna in 1938, where Nazism received a welcome that shocked even the Germans. The tortured and largely inadequate response of analysts to these events gives pathos to Danto's story, even as it brings out her central point more clearly than ever. The whole idea that medicine in general, and psychoanalysis in particular, could ever be separated from a politics based on social justice and cultural emancipation was a terrible one. There is no health for...

Long after the War is Over, the Controversy Remains: Looting of Cultural Properties by the Nazis during World War II

This article reviews Nazi confiscations during World War II, focusing on three major points: 1) the theory and rational behind the confiscations; 2) the laws enabling the seizure of property; and 3) the organizations and people responsible for the looting. The story of Maria Altmann illustrates the complexity of international laws involved in recovering looted art works. Altmann v. Austria is a landmark case because it was the first of its kind to reach the U. S. Supreme Court. In January 2006, Mrs. Altmann agreed to binding arbitration in Austria; the three judges unanimously awarded her 5 of the 6 paintings by Gustav Klimt to which she is heir. In late March 2006, the paintings arrived in Los Angeles where the most famous of the paintings, Adele Bloch-Bauer I was placed on display in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Sex and the Maiden: Authenticity and the Erotic Adaptation of The Wings of the Dove

Abstract: Iain Softley’s The Wings of the Dove has been the most popular of the recent crop of cinematic adaptations of Henry James and has elicited approving readings from Jamesian critics, who laud its fidelity to aspects of the text. Accompanying the praise, though, is the familiar criticism that the film strays from the true path of Jamesian ambiguity when it substitutes sexually explicit scenes for the subtlety and indirection of the original novel. In an adaptive move that flattens the novel’s ironic treatment of sex, money, and power, the filmic Kate Croy becomes an unambiguous femme fatale, whose sexual desire kills her best friend and alienates her lover. It is in the closing scene of the film, in its depiction of uninhibited but loveless sex, and its delicate allusion to Gustav Klimt’s 1908 painting Danae, that the film adaptation of Kate Croy is paradoxically least, and yet most, satisfying—and so, most authentically Jamesian— in its rendering of both her sexual energy and her sexual entrapment.

GUSTAV KLIMT: DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY RAINER METZGER

The Art BookVolume 13, Issue 4 p. 39-41 GUSTAV KLIMT: DRAWINGS AND WATERCOLOURS BY RAINER METZGER NORBERT LYNTON, NORBERT LYNTON Professor Emeritus, Sussex UniversitySearch for more papers by this author NORBERT LYNTON, NORBERT LYNTON Professor Emeritus, Sussex UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 09 November 2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8357.2006.00729.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume13, Issue4November 2006Pages 39-41 RelatedInformation

Sex and the Maiden: Authenticity and the Erotic Adaptation of The Wings of the Dove

Abstract: Iain Softley’s The Wings of the Dove has been the most popular of the recent crop of cinematic adaptations of Henry James and has elicited approving readings from Jamesian critics, who laud its fidelity to aspects of the text. Accompanying the praise, though, is the familiar criticism that the film strays from the true path of Jamesian ambiguity when it substitutes sexually explicit scenes for the subtlety and indirection of the original novel. In an adaptive move that flattens the novel’s ironic treatment of sex, money, and power, the filmic Kate Croy becomes an unambiguous femme fatale, whose sexual desire kills her best friend and alienates her lover. It is in the closing scene of the film, in its depiction of uninhibited but loveless sex, and its delicate allusion to Gustav Klimt’s 1908 painting Danae, that the film adaptation of Kate Croy is paradoxically least, and yet most, satisfying—and so, most authentically Jamesian— in its rendering of both her sexual energy and her sexual entrapment.

Sex, Lies, and Motion Pictures

Iain Softley's The Wings of the Dove, the most successful of the films recently inspired by Henry James's novels, is also the film that most thoroughly jettisons his text. Both its representation of sex and its representation of lying alter the ratio between the direct and the oblique in the novel--forcing to the surface what James identifies only by metaphorical indirection and silence. But Softley's moving pictures effectively translate into their own terms a Jamesian dream of triangular intimacy. The highlight of this process is the cinematic ekphrasis of Gustav Klimt's Dana�, which replaces the Bronzino at Matcham.

Painter and King: Gustav Klimt's Early Decorative Work at Peleş Castle, Romania, 1883-1884

Painter and King: Gustav Klimt's Early Decorative Work at Peleş Castle, Romania, 1883-1884

New Worlds: German and Austrian Art 1890-1940

Book synopsis: This volume, the inaugural catalogue of the Neue Galerie New York, seeks to bring to light the history of the works of fine and decorative artists of Germany and Austria between 1890 and 1940. Focusing on 26 visual artists and 18 decorative artists whose work is represented in the Neue Galerie New York collection, the catalogue offers an overview of their works and situates them within the history of their reception in 20th-century America. It also tells the stories of the numerous museum officials, patrons, art dealers and journalists who brought these artworks to the attention of the American public. The catalogue seeks to illumine the little-known facts of German and Austrian artists' reception in American through biographies that describe the highlights of their lives and careers as well as their presentations in the United States. A variety of catalogue essays examine such topics as the cultural context within which German and Austrian Expressionism arose, public response to museum representations of German art, formalistic issues in Austrian decorative arts, aesthetic quests in the German decorative arts, and key moments in the American reception of German and Austrian decorative arts. Featured artists include Peter Behrens, Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Adolf Loos, Egon Schiele and Otto Wagner.

Gustav Klimt: Modernism in the Making. Edited by Colin B. Bailey. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. 239 pages. $60.00.

Gustav Klimt: Modernism in the Making. Edited by Colin B. Bailey. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. 239 pages. $60.00.

'Hitler's First Victim'? — Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria: Introduction

'Hitler's FirstVictim5? ? Memory and Representation in Post-War Austria Introduction JUDITH BENISTON 24 February 2003 saw the publication of the final report of theHistoriker kommission [Historical Commission], an independent body established by the Austrian government in autumn 1998 to carry out a scholarly investigation of6Verm?gensentzug auf dem Gebiet der Republik Osterreich w?hrend der NS-Zeit sowie R?ckstellungen und Entsch?digungen (sowie wirtschaftliche und soziale Leistungen) seit 1945 in?sterreich' [the seizure of property on Austrian territory during the period ofNazi rule, as well as restitution and compensation (and related economic and welfare issues) in Austria since 1945].1 The appointment of the Commission, chaired by eminent lawyer Clemens Jabloner, professor at the University of Vienna and President of the Verwaltungsgerichtshof [Administrative Court], can be seen as a response both to sustained domestic pressure ? from an increasingly assertive Jewish community, from politicians (especially in the ?VP [Austrian People's Party] and Green Party), and from a new generation of historians ? and to developments in the international arena, where since the mid-1990s attention has increasingly focused on the economics of persecution, on bringing to account companies, institutions and individuals who benefited materially from the Nazi policies of confiscation and exploitation.2 In Austria as elsewhere, awkward questions have been asked ofmajor corporations, of banks and insurance companies, several ofwhich have set up their own investigative commissions; protracted disputes over 1 Clemens Jabloner, Brigitte Bailer-Galanda, Eva Blimlinger, Georg Graf, Robert Knight, Lorenz Mikoletzky, Bertrand Perz, Roman Sandgruber, Karl Stuhlpfarrer and Alice Teichova, Schlussbericht derHistorikerkommission derRepublik Osterreich. Verm?gensentzug w?hrend der JVS-^eit sowie R?ckstellungen und Entsch?digungen seit ig4j in ?sterreich. Zusammenfassungen und Einsch?tzungen (Vienna and Munich, 2003). The text was immediately made available online at http:// www.historikerkommission.gv.at. All page references are to the printed version; here p. 15. 2 See Richard Mitten, 'The Price of Historical Responsibility: "Wiedergutmachung" and the Austrian Historians' Commission', Antisemitism Research, 3/1 (1999), 9-15? Recent scholarly interest in the economics of persecution is exemplified by the following: Die politische ?konomie des Holocaust. Zur wirtschaftlichen Logik von Verfolgung und 'Wiedergutmachung', ed. by Dieter Stiefel (Vienna, 2001). 2 Introduction the ownership of looted artworks (for example, paintings by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt) alerted a broad public to the restitution issue. A further catalyst was the threat of legal action in theUnited States ? the so-called 'class actions' demanding compensation for holders of looted bank accounts and for individuals, including civilians from occupied countries and former concentration camp inmates, who had been used during the period ofNazi rule as forced or slave labourers. The report of theHistorical Commission, which focuses attention squarely on how the victims ofNational Socialism inAustria have been treated, both in the period 1938-45 and subsequently, may also be said to constitute a quasi-official reckoning (and not only in the monetary sense of the word) with the thesis of Austria as 'Hitler's first victim' that, until the 1980s, remained the barely questioned master-narrative of the Second Republic.3 As such, it forms an important backdrop to the articles assembled in the present volume, all of which explore representations and memories of the rise ofNazism and ofNazi rule inAustria that stand in complex and often critical relation to the notion of collective and institutional victimhood. As iswell known, the 'victim thesis' originates in theMoscow Declaration of November 1943, inwhich thewartime Allies identified Austria as 'das erste freie Land, das der typischen Angriffspolitik Hitlers zum Opfer fallen sollte' [the first free country to fall a victim to Hitlerite aggression].4 Declaring the annexation of the country by Nazi Germany on 15March 1938 to be null and void, the signatories announced their intention to reverse it. In the following paragraph, however, theDeclaration warned thatAustria must take responsibility for her subsequent participation in the war on the side of Nazi Germany and that account would be taken of how far the Austrian people liberated themselves. Less than two years later, the Declaration of Austrian Independence (27 April 1945) incorporated the complete text of theMoscow Declaration with only minor changes in wording; but the sense of ambivalence was weakened by detaching the caveats from...

"Medicine" by Gustav Klimt

In 1894 the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Education commissioned Gustav Klimt produce a group of paintings that would allegorize the Faculties of the University and the paintings were to be installed in the University's Graduation Hall. Thus Klimt produced The Faculty Pictures - Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence. One hundred years have passed since Klimt created his masterpieces, yet they have not received the attention they deserve - few critical analyses of the paintings have revealed their intellectual depth and formal sophistication. This essay, meant as a partial remedy, analyzes Medicine. Here we discuss Klimt's morphology, aesthetic paradigm, and juxtaposition of vernacular and classical traditions. Also, we demonstrate that photography had an impact on Klimt and hypothesize that Muybridge's serial photography may have provided him with a catalyst. In conclusion we propose that Medicine embodies the tradition of German Transcendental Idealism as expounded by Schopenhauer in his book which shaped nineteenth century aesthetics - The World as Will and Representation.

'Moderner Stil' und 'Heimisches Bauen'. Architekturreform in Graz um 1900 by Antje Senarclens de Grancy

228 Reviews Loos and Otto Weininger and extending toHermann Broch, Arnold Schoenberg, Georg Trakl, Ludwig Wittgenstein and, in his lastwork, Egon Schiele. Musil and Freud as well as Schnitzler [. . .] could also be counted as criticalmodernists even if theywere often opposed to theKraus-Loos-Weininger axis' (pp. 208-9). Critical modernists 'aimed at exposing the double standard of Catholic morality, the corruption of politicians, thepress and big business and against the superficiality of "dieWiener Moderne" without abandoning respect forgenuine novelty' (p. 209). Janik's respect forOtto Weininger has not always earned him universal approval. Here, however, he makes a very strong case for Weininger's centrality toViennese culture in general, carefully and skilfullyplacing his misogyny and anti-Semitism into a context thatmakes them appear rather lessdistasteful than theyusually seem. Much of Weininger's thought, especially on women, isnot, however, as aberrant as Janik claims: 'no figure infin de si?cle Vienna is farther removed than he from the taste, moral values, and intellectual orientations of contemporary intellectuals' (p. 38). In fact,much that Weininger has to say on theFrauenfrage is foreshadowed in the earlywork of Peter Altenberg. His name occurs nowhere either in thisbook or inBeller's, yet he is a figure who is truly central to 'Vienna 1900' and who, in Kraus's own words, formed the 'bessererDreibund' with himself and Loos. With chapters devoted toKraus's artistic idolJacques Offenbach and theKraus devotee Arnold Schoenberg, Janik demonstrates the centrality ofmusic to a proper understanding ofwhat made 'Wittgenstein's Vienna' tick.Especially in the chapter on the little-known philosopher Ferdinand Ebner's confrontation with the views of Richard Wagner, Janik both opens new doors in our understanding of the culture and provides a subtle and effective critique of the way inwhich the uncritical reception of Schorske's views of Gustav Klimt and theVienna Secession have clouded the significance ofWagner in the development ofViennese modernism. Equally revealing, and welcome, isJanik's emphasis on the importance of Ibsen for our wider understanding ofViennese modernism. In general, but especially in some of themore specifically philosophical chapters relating to aspects of Wittgenstein's thought,Janik makes considerable demands on his readers. Unlike Schorske, with whom he shares a similar breadth of vision and singularity ofpurpose, Janik's gritty prose does not always make his work an ideal introduction for the neophyte. The final chapter ' "Ethik und ?sthetik sind eins": Wittgenstein and Trakl', however, provides a splendid example ofJanik's ability to cross boundaries and make fruitful connections. And this, surely, iswhat the study of'Vienna 1900' isall about. University of Edinburgh Andrew Barker 'ModemerStil' und 'HeimischesBauen'. Architekturreform in Graz um igoo. By Antje Senarclens de Grangy. Vienna, Cologne and Weimar: B?hlau. 2001. 459 ?>l9? illustrations. 78,30. isbn 3-205-99284-9. The 'Speziai Forschungsbereich Moderne', an interdisciplinary research initiative located at theKarl-Franzens Universit?t Graz, has already yielded a number of extremely interesting interdisciplinary studies of modernism and modernity in Central Europe. 'ModernerStil' und 'Heimisches Bauen'. Architekturreform inGraz um igoo, a highly nuanced and richly illustrated analysis of architectural discourse and discourse on architecture inGraz at the beginning of the twentieth century, isno AUSTRIAN STUDIES, II, 2OO3 229 exception. In this study, Senarclens de Grancy advances the central thesis that, ina 'second-order centre' such as Graz, it is possible to retain an overview of matters and so attain an accurate yet differentiated understanding of the tensions between modernism and traditionalism that shaped architectural reformaround 1900.Using the term 'architectural reform' to signify the plurality of approaches, whose only common factorwas theirdesire toprovide an alternative tohistoricism, she setsout toprovide an analysis that remains true to the complexity of the situation. The book is divided into five sections. The firstprovides a two-pronged introduction, outlining the complexities of architectural discourse inCentral Europe around 1900 and also detailing the author's perspective on 'architectural reform in Graz around 1900'. This is based on an historical analysis of definitions of the 'modern' and the 'anti-modern'. In carrying out this analysis, Senarclens de Grancy seeks to remain true to theplurality of Stilsprachenin existence at the turnof the last century, and also to understand the role that external discourses on subjects such as thenature ofmodernity...

Ornament and abstraction: the dialogue between non-Western, modern and contemporary art

The importance of ornament in the emergence and development of abstract art has long been underestimated. Pioneers like Kandinsky and Mondrian looked upon it as a sin in which abstraction should not indulge. Ornament, with its history dating back thousands of years in all world cultures, was secreted in the development of modern nineteenth-century painting, but surreptitiously began to influence abstract art as a formal and methodical element. This book is an in-depth study of this major theme in twentieth-century art history. The catalogue features four artists who help to highlight the role of ornament in the history of art: Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse and Frank Stella. The study begins with the innovative pictorial conception of Philipp Otto Runge, whose early nineteenth-century paintings featured the last genuine form in the history of ornament, the arabesque. The arabesque was influential in Symbolism (Maurice Denis, Paul Gauguin) and Jugendstil (Henry van de Velde, Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann), and on painting's move towards abstraction (Kandinsky, Frantisek Kupka, Adolf Hoelzel). It is argued that this resulted, on the one hand, in a non-figurative, geometric structure of lines (Mondrian), and on the other, in the swirls of Matisse and Jackson Pollock. Side by side with the royal way of Cubism, arabesque abstraction therefore opens up a second doorway to the world of non-figurative art. In addition to this line of enquiry, the authors examine theoretical findings on the theme of ornament, and what it reveals about the relation between abstraction and figurative art (Malevich, Kandinsky, Paul Klee). Significant influences also result from modern artists' preoccupation with exotic ornamentation found in distant cultures: Matisse & the Orient and Oceania, Ad Reinhardt & Asian culture, or American painting & pre-Columbian ornament (Josef Albers, Barnett Newman). In also considering Minimalism, new media, digital technology, the Renaissance and the Rococo, the book celebrates the impact of ornament on abstract art, as well as showcasing a remarkable array of masterpieces.

Wendingen: a journal for the arts, 1918-1932

With its first issue in January of 1918 Wendingen set a new standard in arts publishing. The pioneering journal sought out the newest ideas by the most creative practitioners in all of the visual arts--architecture, graphics, typography, sculpture, ceramics, glass, and theatrical design--and then reproduced them in sumptuous, hand-bound editions of unparalleled beauty. Over its fourteen-year history, Wendingen, which translates roughly as upheaval, featured the work of such diverse artists as Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, Eileen Gray, and Erich Mendelsohn. It introduced the work of Frank Lloyd Wright to European audiences in a series of seven issues published in 1925 and 1926. But it is best known for its covers, ranging in style from the art nouveau to the constructivist to the art deco, all of which are reproduced here in color. In this first comprehensive study of this extraordinary magazine, Le Coultre gives students, scholars, and collectors access to this now scarce magazine. He also calls long-overdue attention to the role of Wendingen's founding editor, Hendricus Theodorus Wijedveld, in shaping the course of modern design.

Gustav Klimt: modernism in the making

Heavily influenced by Symbolism and Art Nouveau, Gustav Klimt developed a controversial and highly personal style that combines decorative pattern with a mysterious and powerful sexuality. This book, reproducing 40 paintings and 90 works on paper, focuses on him within his Viennese milieu, his place within the Symbolist movement and his international influence.

Make a mosaic

Gustav Klimt’s paintings are decorative rather than realistic. He is an artist who creates pictures out of geometric shapes using striking colour combinations such as pink, red and gold. The end results are often mosaiclike.

Recreating Klimt

Gustav Klimt has produced some inspiring images, with striking colours and mosaiclike patterns which will appeal to very young children. By recreating one of his most well-known works, ‘The Kiss‘, children can explore the imaginative use of colour, shape and texture and have the chance to experiment with a new creative technique which they can develop later in their own artwork.

Body and Soul: Oskar Kokoschka’s The Warrior, truth, and the interchangeability of the physical and psychological in fin‐de‐siècle Vienna

This essay examines the interpretive issues raised by Oskar Kokoschka’s sculpted bust The Warrior, in light of Kokoschka’s rejection of Gustav Klimt’s decorative use of ornament in favour of an Expressionist visual language of formal distortion and physiognomic exaggeration. Among the most salient properties introduced by Kokoschka’s mode of Expressionist portraiture is the depiction of human flesh as if it were transparent, with veins, arteries and nerve endings left visible on the surface of the skin. The essay also focuses on how Kokoschka’s experiments were patronized by the architect Adolf Loos, and how Loos and Kokoschka could have construed this new idiom as an evocation of psychological ‘truth’, an evocation consistent with the architect’s own obsession with truth to materials in architectural structures. The essay further argues that the association of Kokoschka’s suggestion of physical decay with psychological truth was essentially rhetorical; that this association could only have been made against time‐bound and culturally specific assumptions about the interchangeability of the physical and psychological; and that this association was culled from a broad panoply of ideas prominent in nineteenth‐century philosophy, medicine and psychiatry.

Voice and accent in fin de siècle Viennese aesthetic expressions

It is the thesis of this article Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra initiates a discursive practice, pace Foucault, in the context of which the aesthetic expressions of fin de siècle Vienna assume their full significance. This discursive practice is based upon a two-part process in which the expectations an audience may have for a work are heightened by the intentional conflation of multiple frames of reference and then ironically undercut when the specific historical and cultural contexts for the work are acknowledged. In order to encapsulate and synosize the two steps of the Nietzschean narrative strategy, Bakhtin's notions of double-voiced discourse and accentuation are employed. The effects of this strategy are traced in works by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Mahler, Gustav Klimt, and Otto Wagner.

Focus on Women

Letters from: [ David L. Brautigan ][1] [ Patricia J. Brown ][1] M. R. C. Greenwood, in her Editorial “Dancing with wolves” ([29 Mar., p. 1787][2]), lists a large number of “notabl[e]” scientific societies that “are or have recently been headed by women or minorities.” Without disparaging Greenwood's choice of the societies worthy of note in this regard, I would like to point out that the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology could have been safely added to the list. Our current president, Susan Taylor of the University of California at San Diego, is the fifth female scientist in recent years to head the society. # {#article-title-2} The cover image of the 5 July issue taken from the painting “Three Ages of Woman” by Gustav Klimt (1905), also shown on page 41 of the same issue, depicts an elderly, naked, despondent woman at the left. Where are the old and decrepit men pictured? Old men are wearing suits and ties (pp. 23 and 24) or are on mountaintops (p.26). [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.273.5280.1321e [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.273.5283.1787