Klimt Skateboard Art: The Complete Guide to Every Deck

Last updated: July 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin · 16 min read

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) is the painter people buy when they want a room to feel richer. That is not a criticism. Klimt built his mature style around actual gold — gold leaf, applied directly to the canvas — and the effect he engineered is the one that still works: a surface that changes as the light moves across it and pulls warmth into whatever is around it.

That property is why Klimt translates unusually well onto maple. Wood is already warm. Gold on wood compounds it. Where a cool-palette painting can sit awkwardly on a wooden panel, Klimt's palette and the substrate are pulling in the same direction.

This guide covers all three Klimt works in our catalogue: what each painting is, where the original hangs, which room and palette it suits, and the practical questions — sizing, copyright, print longevity — that come up before buying.

Klimt's Golden Phase: where the gold came from

Klimt's father, Ernst Klimt, was a gold engraver. That is not a decorative biographical detail — it is the whole explanation. Klimt grew up around the working of gold as a craft, understood it as a material rather than a symbol, and when he reached for it in his own painting around 1899 he was returning to something he had watched being done since childhood.

The period from roughly 1899 to 1910 is known as his Golden Phase, and it produced almost everything he is now famous for. A trip to Ravenna in 1903, where he saw the sixth-century Byzantine mosaics of San Vitale with their flat gold grounds, confirmed the direction. Byzantine mosaic does not use gold to depict light; it uses gold to abolish depth, replacing the sky or the background with a field that reflects the actual light of the room. Klimt took that idea directly.

This is why a Klimt looks different from a painting that merely contains yellow. The gold in the original is a reflective surface responding to whatever light is in the room, which is why photographs of Klimt paintings never quite convey them. On a printed reproduction that reflectivity cannot be reproduced literally — but the compositional consequence of it can. Klimt built flat, patterned, non-illusionistic backgrounds around solid figures, and that structure survives reproduction intact.

He was also, throughout, a founder and first president of the Vienna Secession (founded 1897), the group that broke from the conservative Austrian art establishment under the motto carved above their exhibition hall: to every age its art, to art its freedom. Klimt was not a decorator who happened to make pretty things. He was the leading figure of a deliberate revolt.

The Tree of Life triptych — €310

The Tree of Life is part of the Stoclet Frieze, designed by Klimt between 1905 and 1911 for the dining room of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, a private mansion built by the architect Josef Hoffmann for the industrialist Adolphe Stoclet. The finished frieze was executed in marble, glass, ceramic and metal inlay rather than paint. Klimt's full-scale preparatory cartoons — the works most people actually know as "Klimt's Tree of Life" — are held by the MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Its central motif is a spiralling golden tree whose branches curl into tight coils across the whole surface, with a female figure to one side and an embracing couple to the other. The spirals are the point: they are simultaneously branches, decorative pattern and a suggestion of the eye of a bird or a snake, and Klimt refused to resolve which. The tree is a life symbol drawn from a tradition that runs through Norse, Egyptian, Persian and Christian iconography, but Klimt strips out the religious specifics and leaves the structure.

Why it works as a triptych. The Stoclet Frieze was designed as a horizontal band running along a wall — a frieze, by definition, is longer than it is tall. Splitting it across three decks and hanging it as a ~260 cm horizontal run returns it to something close to its intended proportion. Of all the works in our catalogue, this is the one whose original format most closely matches a deck triptych.

Where to put it. This is the single best deckarts piece for a room with warm wood, brass fittings, leather or dark walls. The gold does not fight walnut or oak; it extends them. It is the piece to choose if your living room reads slightly cold or slightly flat, since gold at scale is the fastest way to add perceived warmth without repainting. Above a three-seat sofa is the natural placement.

The Kiss — €140

Painted 1907–08, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 180 × 180 cm, and held by the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, where it is the single most visited object in the collection. It is the defining work of the Golden Phase and arguably the most reproduced painting of the twentieth century.

The composition is worth looking at properly, because familiarity has flattened it. Two figures kneel at the edge of a flowering meadow that stops abruptly — the ground ends, and beyond it is nothing but gold. The couple are wrapped in a single golden robe that merges them into one shape, but the patterning inside that shape divides sharply: rectangles and hard geometry on the man's side, circles and soft floral forms on the woman's. The unity is the outline; the difference is the interior.

The other detail people miss is the woman's feet, which curl over the edge of the meadow into the void. Whatever else The Kiss is doing, it places its embrace precisely at a precipice. The painting is not simply romantic — it is romantic and precarious at once, which is why it has outlasted a century of being printed on everything.

Where to put it. As a single deck at 85 cm, it suits a bedroom, a narrow wall, above a dressing table or a chest of drawers. It is one of the few figurative works that reads well in a bedroom, because the faces are turned away and inward rather than out at the viewer — there is no gaze meeting yours. It also makes a strong gift for a wedding, an anniversary or a housewarming for a couple.

Judith I — €140

Painted in 1901, oil and gold on canvas, 84 × 42 cm, also at the Belvedere in Vienna. This is the earliest of the three works here and the hardest.

The subject is the biblical Judith, who saved the city of Bethulia by entering the tent of the Assyrian general Holofernes and beheading him. In centuries of European painting, Judith is depicted as a grim heroine performing a terrible civic duty. Klimt paints her instead as a Viennese woman of 1901 in a gold choker, eyes half closed, mouth open, in an expression of unmistakeable triumph — with Holofernes' head pushed almost out of the frame at the bottom right, so easy to miss that the painting was catalogued for decades as "Salome" by people who did not look.

That was the provocation. Klimt took a moral exemplar and painted her as a woman enjoying herself, in contemporary jewellery, in a city obsessed with propriety. The gold choker is the detail that fixes it in 1901 Vienna rather than in the ancient world. Judith I is the work that shows what the Vienna Secession was actually arguing about.

Where to put it. Its tall, narrow original proportion (84 × 42 cm) makes it the most natural fit of the three for a vertical deck. It suits a hallway, a study, a home office or a narrow wall beside a doorway, and it holds up in a room with green, deep neutral or dark wood tones. Like the other single decks, it also works as a video-call background, where a strong face reads well at low resolution.

Which Klimt for which room

The sizing logic is the same as for any wall art: the piece should span roughly two-thirds of the width of the furniture beneath it. A three-seat sofa at 200–220 cm calls for the triptych. A dresser, desk or narrow wall calls for a single. Our room-by-room decorating guide works through this in full, and the mounting guide covers heights, spacing and fixings.

If you are choosing between The Kiss and Judith I, the difference is mood rather than quality. The Kiss is warm, enveloping and safe to live with anywhere. Judith I has an edge and rewards a room where you want something with a bit of provocation in it — a study rather than a bedroom.

Pairing Klimt with your interior

Gold is the most situational colour in art. Handled well it reads as warmth and depth; handled badly it reads as ornament for its own sake. The difference is almost entirely whether the room already contains warm metallics or warm wood.

Where Klimt is the obvious answer. Rooms with walnut, oak or teak furniture; brass or bronze fittings; leather; dark green, deep blue or charcoal walls. In all of these the gold has something to echo, and it extends an existing warmth rather than introducing a foreign note. Klimt is also unusually good in rooms that get poor natural light, because the golden palette does some of the work daylight is failing to do.

Where Klimt needs care. Cool, minimal, grey-and-white interiors. It is not that gold cannot work there — a single gold-heavy piece in an otherwise cool room can be a deliberate and very effective accent — but it has to be the only one, and it works best if you pull the tone into the room with one other object: a brass lamp, a warm-toned cushion, a wooden bowl. Without that echo, the gold sits alone and reads as decoration rather than design.

Where to avoid it. A room that already has several competing gold or brass elements plus patterned textiles. Klimt is himself heavily patterned; two loud patterns in one room cancel each other out.

One further pairing note. Klimt and Van Gogh do not sit well together on the same wall — both are maximal, both want to be the focal point, and the palettes fight. If you want two artists in one room, put them on different walls or choose a quieter counterpart such as the flat, graphic Hokusai Great Wave, whose cool restraint gives the eye somewhere to rest.

Copyright: why Klimt is legal to print

Gustav Klimt died in February 1918. Copyright in an artistic work generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years in the EU and the UK, which means Klimt's work entered the public domain decades ago. Reproducing, printing and selling reproductions of his paintings requires no permission and no royalties — the same basis on which the Belvedere sells prints of The Kiss in its own shop.

Two things remain protected and are worth distinguishing. A modern photograph of a painting can attract its own copyright where the photographer made original creative choices, and museum names, logos and branding are trademarks regardless of the age of the art. deckarts prepares its own reproduction files and does not use museum branding.

We take the same rule seriously in the other direction. Artists who died more recently remain in copyright, and those works are not printed regardless of how much demand there might be for them. The independent contemporary artists in the catalogue are handled differently again: they are living, credited by name, and every deck exists under an agreement with them.

For the practical side of ownership — how the UV print behaves over time, why Grade-A Canadian maple is used, and how to hang a deck without damaging it — the detail is in our Van Gogh guide and the main skateboard wall art guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Klimt's work in the public domain?

Yes. Gustav Klimt died in February 1918, and copyright in an artistic work generally lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years in the EU and the UK, so his paintings entered the public domain decades ago. Reproducing, printing, adapting and selling reproductions requires no permission and no royalties — the same legal basis on which the Belvedere in Vienna sells prints of The Kiss in its own museum shop and publishers produce Klimt art books. Two things do remain protected and are worth distinguishing: a modern photograph of a painting can attract its own copyright where the photographer made original creative choices, and museum names, logos and branding remain trademarks regardless of how old the artwork is. deckarts prepares its own reproduction files and does not use museum branding.

Which Klimt painting suits a bedroom?

The Kiss is the natural choice, and it is one of the few figurative works that genuinely works above a bed. The reason is the composition: both faces are turned away and inward toward each other rather than out at the viewer, so there is no gaze meeting yours — which is the quality that makes most portraits uncomfortable in a bedroom. Its warm gold and floral palette also sits well against cream, blush, terracotta and warm neutral walls. As a single deck at 85 × 20 cm it suits a narrow wall, the space above a dresser or a chest of drawers, rather than a full headboard wall, which would call for a triptych. Judith I, by contrast, is better placed in a study or hallway, since its expression has a deliberate edge to it.

What room is Klimt's Tree of Life best for?

A living room with warm materials — walnut, oak or teak furniture, brass or bronze fittings, leather, or dark green, deep blue and charcoal walls. Gold needs something in the room to echo it, and in these settings it extends an existing warmth rather than introducing a foreign note. Tree of Life is also unusually effective in rooms with poor natural light, since the golden palette does some of the work the daylight is failing to do. As a triptych at roughly 260 cm total width, it is sized for a three-seat sofa wall. Where it needs more care is a cool grey-and-white minimal interior, where it can still work as a deliberate single accent but benefits from one other warm object in the room, such as a brass lamp or a wooden bowl.

What is the story behind Klimt's Judith I?

Judith I, painted in 1901 and held at the Belvedere in Vienna, depicts the biblical Judith, who saved the city of Bethulia by entering the tent of the Assyrian general Holofernes and beheading him. For centuries European painters showed her as a grim heroine performing a terrible duty. Klimt painted her instead as a Viennese woman of 1901 in a gold choker, eyes half closed, in an expression of unmistakeable triumph, with Holofernes' head pushed so far into the bottom corner that the painting was catalogued for decades as "Salome" by people who did not look closely. That was the provocation: a moral exemplar painted as a woman enjoying herself, in contemporary jewellery, in a city preoccupied with propriety.

Why did Klimt use gold in his paintings?

Klimt's father, Ernst Klimt, was a gold engraver, so Klimt grew up watching gold worked as a craft material rather than encountering it as a symbol. He began applying gold leaf directly to canvas around 1899, beginning what is now called his Golden Phase, which ran to roughly 1910 and produced almost all his best-known work. A visit to Ravenna in 1903, where he saw the sixth-century Byzantine mosaics of San Vitale with their flat gold grounds, confirmed the approach. Byzantine mosaic does not use gold to depict light but to abolish depth, replacing background space with a field that reflects the actual light of the room, and Klimt adopted that logic directly — which is why his backgrounds are flat and patterned rather than illusionistic.

How big is a Klimt skateboard deck?

A single deck, such as The Kiss or Judith I, measures 85 × 20 cm and weighs roughly 1–1.5 kg. The Tree of Life triptych is three decks hung side by side with 5–10 cm gaps, giving a total width of about 260 cm. The sizing rule is the same for any wall art: the piece should span roughly two-thirds of the width of the furniture beneath it, so a three-seat sofa at 200–220 cm calls for the triptych, while a dresser, desk or narrow wall calls for a single. Every deck arrives with the eight truck holes already drilled, so a purpose-made wall mount fixes it flat with two screws, or a floor stand displays it with no holes at all.

Article summary

deckarts prints three Gustav Klimt works onto Grade-A Canadian maple in Berlin. The Tree of Life triptych (€310, ~260 cm total width) comes from the Stoclet Frieze designed 1905–11 for a Brussels mansion, with the full-scale cartoons held by the MAK in Vienna; its original frieze proportion makes it the work best suited to a three-deck horizontal run, and it is the strongest choice for rooms with walnut, oak, brass, leather or dark walls. The Kiss (€140, single deck) was painted 1907–08 in oil and gold leaf and hangs at the Belvedere in Vienna; because both faces turn inward rather than out at the viewer, it is one of the few figurative works that reads well in a bedroom. Judith I (€140, single deck), painted 1901 and also at the Belvedere, depicts the biblical heroine as a triumphant Viennese woman of 1901 and suits a study, hallway or home office. Klimt's Golden Phase drew on his father's trade as a gold engraver and on the Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna. Klimt died in 1918, so all three works are in the public domain and reproduction is entirely legal.

About the author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of deckarts, a graphic designer and print specialist originally from Donetsk, Ukraine, now based in Berlin, where he personally designs and prepares every deck. Follow the work on Instagram or at stasarnautov.com.