Info: The Kiss, 1907, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 70.9” x 70.9”, Österreichische Galerie, Vienna, Austria.

Explanation: This painting is Gustav Klimt’s most famous work, painted during his Golden Period (which was during the world’s Art Noveau, Symbolism, and Arts and Crafts movements). The piece is a throwback to Degas’s two-and-three-dimensional works inspired by Japanese prints. Although the painting may seem flat at first glance, the colors and emotion give it an unexpected dimensionality.

Clearly, “The Kiss” depicts a couple intertwined as they kiss against a bronze background. The man wears a cloak of black and tan rectangles, representing males’ powerful and straightforward attitude toward life. The woman dons a dress with circle patterns all over it; these shapes represent an open flower (symbolizing female sensuality).

However, not much else in the painting is defined – the woman and man are meshed together in a powerful embrace, which causes an explosion of color and patterns in a disorganized way that is somehow still pleasant to the eye.

While the woman has her eyes closed in a strange mix of abandonment and pleasure, the man’s face is not shown. His passion is implied by the strong muscles in his cheek as he kisses; his tenderness, in the way he carefully cradles the woman’s face.

The couple stands on a cliff covered in flowers (it’s almost meadow-like), but there is no background. Klimt created the piece so that nothing distracts from the two central characters. The viewer gets the feeling that the two are totally alone and removed from any tangible world. There is no pressure or time, just love. It’s like nothing exists but them – they are just two caught in a whirlwind of color and infatuation.

My opinion: I have this painting in poster form on my dorm room’s wall. I think it’s so beautiful and passionate because she’s so into the guy and she’s just melting into him.

The couple is becoming one before the viewer’s eyes – morphing together because they’re so desperately in love that they have to get as close as possible… and, even then, they’re not close enough. The two are clutching at each other so tightly that the woman’s arm doesn’t even make a separate line from the shape of the man’s neck.

The grass on his crown has combined beautifully with the flowers in her hair to mingle and create the cliff on which they stand. The woman closes her eyes because she’s just totally overcome by gratitude and adoration – her emotions are overwhelming her so much that she has no choice but to go limp in her lover’s arms.

… all of this from a kiss on the cheek. *happy sigh*

Sources: http://www.peintre-analyse.com/baiserus.htm, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klimt/kiss/.

art and soul

Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” features passionate embrace