Thursday, May 22, 2008

Alma Mahler-Werfel is my hero

Although her track record suggests a golden or at the least floozy vagina, Alma Mahler was the muse to a crazy collection of genius artists. And she didn't just stick to one type of artist, oh no, she had quite the varied taste for aesthetic seduction.

She trampled on hearts, cheated and lied, over and over; and the fragile geniuses wept and moaned as the sadistic angel floated away. 

she was the childhood friend of Gustav Klimt-- she gave him her first kiss 
am i suggesting a correlation? I most certainly am not entirely! I do not see how such a universally identified beauty, labeled flirt, and heartbreaker would not at least have some sort of influence on Klimt's Masterpiece. All I'm sayin is he was a playboy, she was a playgirl, in the art world that relationship is represented in golden shrouds. Signs and symbols baby.

let us move on. In 1900 Alexander von Zemlinsky (Austrian composer) got shot in the ass by cupid's arrow, but however mutual or pure Alma's intentions were, she was dissuaded by her family to pursue the relationship because of his displeasing face and lack of international fame. They were right on both accounts. He was no James Dean and was completely under appreciated and neglected in his later United States home, but since when has that been reason enough to sever heartstrings, huh? That's unheard of. 

So anyway, later she ties the knot with Gustav Mahler who was director of the Viennese court opera (so apparently he has a few things up on poor von Zemlinsky.) But apparently not too much cause after her two babies, Alma shacked up with the young architect Walter Gropius (Bauhaus.)

So Gustav was all like "shit, I gotta take the intiative" and tried to win her back. He died. And she moved on. But not with Gropius- he was so last year. Oskar Kokoschka, the expressionist painter with the best painter name, fell in love blah blah blah with we all know who. Many of his painting were inspired by her (and this is not just me assuming) and he was a posessive bastard. When she left him, he got a doll of her made and brought it to operas as his companion. 

Alma said "fuck this, I am my own woman. And my body has been too long with one man" and ran back into the arms of Gropius. She had a baby together, but he had to go into the army and leave her alone. BAD IDEA GROPIUS...!!!! She went and had sex with poet and writer, Franz Werfel. She had a baby Werfel that she named Martin Carl Johannes Gropius because she didn't really want to have a bad reputation when hubby Gropi came home. Whatever, he figured it out and she lived the rest of her life with Werfel.

yes... Alma Klimt-von Zelimsky-Mahler-Gropius-Kokoschka-Werfel is my hero. Too bad i have no game.





1 comment:

Bridgie said...

One of the best satirists of all time, Tom Lehrer, wrote a song about Alma, which I can't believe I've never shared with you-- in fact, i remember thinking of you when I first heard it, and must have just gotten distracted by something shiny.

It can be heard here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTL71yZ3Mo

And the lyrics are here:
http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/alma.htm