The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is the personification of love and passion. The Belvedere Exhibition in Vienna has this glittering, brilliant love depiction of two faces and bodies caressing one other. Despite its evident luxury, the gold leaf-covered canvas does not detract from the work’s profound importance. The painting has gathered a lot of controversy over the years, thus why I selected this piece. The artwork is the most iconic and celebrated of Klimt’s paintings that the artist did during the peak of his career. This essay aims at addressing specific inquiries about this sexual, ambiguous, and legendary work to learn more about its unique significance.
Prior to taking the art class, I was aware of the artwork. The heated debates from the artwork captured my attention, thereby devoting lots of my time to studying the painting. Since its finalization in 1908, The Kiss has enthralled audiences with its stylized patterns, romantic symbolism, and shimmering gold tones. At the artist’s golden period height, the piece was painted with added silver, gold leaf, and platinum. The production style of the work is rococo, as it offers more detail, definition, and beauty. The female’s face has details that stand out and are admirable. Unlike the undefined blurred look of paintings done in impressionism style, The Kiss is clear and depicts the love theme due to the color palette applied.
Klimt created The Kiss during a critical period in his career when he was experiencing artistic despair. The artist had just faced harsh criticism for the ceiling artworks, Medicine, Philosophy, and Jurisprudence at the University of Vienna. Klimt had worries about the project and its tainted reputation because the paintings were labeled as obscene. Despite having formed and served as the founder president of the Vienna Secession, the painter had recently abandoned the movement. The goal of this organization was to break away from the Fine Arts Academy and its conservative principles (“The Kiss by Klimt,” 2019). The Vienna Secessionists painted explicit artworks, refusing to eliminate sexual aspects.
Although Klimt quit the group due to differences, he remained its prominent representative. Klimt also organized The Kunstschau exhibition after deviating from the Secession, where he first showed The Kiss to the general audience. The event drew a lot of flak and was a financial disaster. Despite this, the display was responsible for The Kiss’s meteoric rise to fame. The Viennese government purchased the piece even before the show closed, as it was regarded as of national significance (“The Kiss by Klimt,” 2019). Under the immense golden cloak is a passionate couple in this piece. This magnificent embellishment safeguards and encloses the couple, reinforcing their love’s eternity.
The image has two parts: the first depicts the man and features a repetitive geometrical black and white design representing the male’s power, masculinity, and virility. Meanwhile, Klimt utilizes circles and flowers to convey themes of femininity and childbirth in the second part, which depicts the woman (Richman-Addou, 2017). The Kiss artwork is a play on my emotions, as it evokes various emotions in me. The painting obscures the man’s face instead of focusing on the woman’s. The young female’s facial representation and closed eyes inspire sensations of happiness, excitement, and abandonment all at the same time. The way the man’s hands softly grip the woman’s face conveys sentiments of warmth and love, despite the man’s stance being intrusive (“The Kiss Gustav Klimt,” 2020). The lovers appear to be in an unshakable embrace; although standing linked on a flowerbed, they are on the verge of disappearing forever. Klimt’s background and reason for creating The Kiss do not influence how I view and interact with the piece.
The Kiss is a mesmerizing and shocking piece to all who have the luxury of seeing it, whether due to the usage of gold or bold subject matter. The Kiss represents the pinnacle of Gustav Klimt’s golden period, during which his father’s work as a jeweler sparked his interest in the gemstone (“The Kiss by Klimt,” 2019). Klimt utilized a supercharged gold coating on The Kiss, where its glistening background serves as a golden encasement for the couple after being acquainted with the trade.
Only around the couple’s exposed body portions does clear separation of sections with precise linework appear, differentiating the lady (with fine light lines) and man (with dark solid lines) characters as individuals. The lack of distinct line work throughout the couple’s connecting cloak areas, on the other hand, binds them together as a single mass. Implied lines characterize the work through different textures and color choices that lead to value distinction. Klimt effectively makes the centered couple the circle by using a square canvas. The circle represents humanity’s innate desire to find love, to seek a complementary companion with whom they can complete each other’s originality.
The prime aim of applying color is to adorn the canvas with lavish metaphoric texture and appealing pattern elements. The dominant vertical and rectangular masculine texture discreetly infiltrates the feminine form via underlying straight wavy fabric patterns and a dash of square designs surrounding the female arm. There is a gentle infiltration across the male’s robe, slashing horizontally in a wavy swirling manner. Warm colors of bronze brown dominate the piece, with a cool green tint in the backdrop. With the exclusion of the patch of flowers where the lovers are, the couple is in gold color clothing.
References
Richman-Addou, K. (2017). The story behind Gustav Klimt’s shimmering symbolist painting ‘The Kiss.’ My Modern Met. Web.
The Kiss by Klimt. (2019). Artsper Magazine. Web.
The Kiss Gustav Klimt- An analysis of Klimt’s paintings, “The Kiss.” (2020). Art in context. Web.