The Kiss is one of the most famous paintings of Gustaw Klimmt. It was painted at the beginnings of the twentieth century and belongs to vienesse secession. It is said that the painting was created in the "Golden period" of his career, when he was mesmerized by the gold.
At first blush the work seem to be a multiple warm and deep colours, without any concrete shapes. But if we look closely at it, we see shapes emerging from a picture. At the centre of it there is a man and a woman in a passionate clinch. They are standing at the edge of a meadow full of colourful flowers and both wear robes with different patterns: a man's robe is yellow with black and white rectangles of different size, and the woman's robe, also yellow, has oval shapes of different colours. The couple wears some kind of a crown made of flowers.They are very close to each other, a man is holding a woman's head in his hands, like he wanted to keep her right to him.
The colours of the cloths are extremely warm and similar to each other, light yellow of man's robe turns slightly into dark yellow robe of his, as we can assume, beloved. The background, though, doesn't seem to be as bright as a couple. The warm shade of yellow cloths converts into almost brown tint of the background, at some places punctures tiny glaring lights, like golden stars.
Generally speaking, the painting reminds mosaics and illuminated manuscripts, because of it's sensual and opulent shapes reflects the spirit of the times of fin de siecle and the decadence.
Although it's a very famous and known painting, I still think it's my favourite. I'm not a specialist if it comes to an art, but certainly I don't enjoy watching classic paintings of great painters, although I understand that those are masterpieces. What I always enjoyed were surrealstic paintings of Salvador Dali and works of Gustaw Klimmt. They always make me think what they mean. And the painting I just described always makes me feel warm and almost jelaous of love I see at the picture ;-) I don't only admire it because it is so bright and sensual, but also its technique, because I can't imagine myself painting such a masterpiece.
It is unfortunate that this image is now part of mass culture. It can be seen on notebooks, plates, clocks and t-shirts, and so I must say that some of its charm has been lost for me. But it's good to look at it afresh and appreciate its unquestionable beauty. Thanks!
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