Gustav
Klimt's "The Kiss" is characteristic of his work: erotically charged
and embellished with highly ornamental areas of decoration and dazzling
gold tones.
Klimt was a brilliant Austrian
iconoclast who rose from an impoverished childhood to become an artist
of enormous significance to the Viennese Secession and the art nouveau
movement. He primarily produced extravagant paintings and murals that
were explicitly sensual, as well as works expressing themes of
regeneration, love and death. Klimt (1862-1918) was inspired by an
eclectic scope of influences, including Egyptian, Classical Greek,
Byzantine and Medieval styles. His works often utilized symbolic
elements to emphasize the freedom of art from traditional culture.
Although numerous works were incomplete when Klimt died, their high
asking price was a testament to the thriving legacy he left behind.
"The Kiss", created in 1907-08, is a monument to love and one of
Klimt's most transcendent images. Only the faces and hands of this
couple are visible; all the rest is great swirls of gold, as if to
express the loss of self that lovers experience.
