ART APPRECIATION THREAD The Kiss---Gustav Klimt's most famous work

WEB MUSEUM ^ | 19 Aug 2002 | © Nicolas Pioch

[Liz]

Just as Munch can be associated with both Symbolism and Expressionism, so the art of the Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), is a curious and elegant synthesis of Symbolism and Art Nouveau.

The Austrians responded enthusiastically to the decorative artifice of Art Nouveau, and Klimt is almost artifice incarnate.

He painted large ornamental friezes of allegorical scenes, and produced fashionable portraits, uniting the stylized shapes and unnatural colors of Symbolism with his own essentially harmonious concept of beauty.

The Kiss is a fascinating icon of the loss of self that lovers experience. Only the faces and hands of this couple are visible; all the rest is great swirl of gold, studded with colored rectangles as if to express visually the emotional and physical explosion of erotic love.

THE KISS

1907-08 (100 Kb); 180 x 180 cm (71 x 71 in); Österreichisches Galerie Wien, Vienna
Man leaning over and kissing kneeling woman. All shrouded in symbolically patterned gold. A bed of flowers below them.

[Liz]

KLIMT LANDSCAPE

KLIMT'S SUNSITE

[Pyro7480]

He should have stuck to landscapes.

[Liz]

art thread ping

[nuconvert]

Is this ART APPRECIATION THREAD something new?

[spyone]

Love his work.

[Liz]

It's interesting that Klimt's landscape is immediately identifiable as his work, even though it is far removed from his thematic The Kiss.

[ken5050]

let me guess...you're in love?

[MinuteGal]

Not new, not old. Get on the ping list if you're one of the few, the proud.

I love these art threads and I don't leave home without thinking of them.

Leni

[Liz]

Sort of new---I started the theme back during Pope JP11's funeral with a thread on the magnificent Bernini altar at the Vatican. Was so popular we compiled an art ping list. Signal if you want to be on it. Sam Cree and I mind the list.

[Mark in the Old South]

Re: The Kiss

:-p

[Bella_Bru]

Thnaks for the thread. I love Klimt's work.

[Liz]

Oh, Ken (blush). Actually I was inspired by a recent addition to my art library--a volume on the subject of Klimt, after a friend bought one of his works.

[martin_fierro]

L I Z
H A S
A
B O Y Y Y Y Y Y F R I E N D
neener neener neeeeeeeeeneeeerrrrrr
< |:)~

[Mark in the Old South]

Add me to your list if you do not mind an undiluted hater of Modern un-art.

[Liz]

I see you're all puckered up----grin.

[Finger Monkey]

Thanks man, I love Klimt.

[Liz]

Marty, you know you're the only one for me (giggle).

[najida]

It's a sweet picture.

I like it. :) I wouldn't hang it in my bedroom, maybe my office.

That's how I judge art ;)

[Millee]

What do I know, I think they're all pretty. But good grief, when that woman stands up she'll tower over him by about 2'. (Obviously, he has other attributes though!)

[Liz]

Laura Payne's "Essential Klimt" (UK publisher) is a wonderful resource.....juxtaposes color plates of his works to illustrate similarities, and the evolution of his technique.