Essay

Arin Jang

Prof. Kyle Brebner

IERW (03)

6 October 2015

The Kiss

             A couple in the painting is embracing, a woman is kneeling down and a man is kissing her on a flower garden seemed as a cliff. Overall, it is covered by gold. You will easily find out what I describe. It is The Kiss, made by Gustav Klimt. It is the best art I’ve ever seen. I will introduce the painting’s background, and then describe, interpret and evaluate it on my view.

             I want to introduce the background story of the painting at first. Gustav Klimt, an Austrian symbolist painter, is known as a best painter for expressing woman historically. And there was a sincerely beloved woman for him, Emilie Floege,. The Kiss. He described his fear and precariousness that stemmed from being abandoned by Emilie by drawing the couple kissing on the edge of a dangerous cliff in the canvas. And he proposed to her with the painting, and she accepted it. Since then, they had been together for 27 years with not physical relationship but platonic love before Klimt died.

             The background where couple is kissing is covered by gold. Traditionally and generally, gold symbolizes wealth. I think in this painting the gold means sexual pleasure the couple feels. I guess Klimt might use the gold color to describe that sexual pleasure is as worthwhile as happiness from the wealth. They are on the flower garden cliff. The flower garden means happiness when they were together, and I think the cliff can be interpreted by two ways. The first is anxiety. That is from worries that my lover might leave me like that Emilie left Klimt. The second meaning I think is a thrill from kissing. It seems that the pleasure from kissing is as thrilling as standing on the edge of the cliff. I have not met Klimt, but I think he would paint The Kiss with this intention I guess. Then, there is no clue where they are and when. From this point, I feel like they are renouncing the world and there is no one but them in the world. No clue about the place and time makes us focus on only their love without any distracting thoughts. Another point we should focus on when seeing this painting is the difference of the man and the woman. The man is wearing on clothes filled by black and gray rectangles, grasping the woman’s face. I feel rectangular shape means toughness of men, and the colors double that feeling. Grasping the woman’s face also strongly portrays his masculinity. On the other hand, there are circles and curves of various colors on the woman’s clothes. It feels like flowers. The circles and curves of various warm colors give me a soft sense relatively. I feel obeisance of woman from kneeling down. Judging from this expressions Klimt did, I cannot help thinking he had a stereotype of gender like most people in his period.

             I felt uncomfortable about the expression of woman and man, seeing The Kiss at first. Because, by the colors like gray/black and pink/red and the shape such as rectangles and circles, the woman is depicted very passively and obediently, and, contrastively, the man very actively and authoritatively. I hate this prejudice, especially about the gender. But considering the male-dominated society Klimt lived, it is possible for me to understand why he had this thought. I like the background of gold color and the flower garden, as they express ecstasy from kiss very properly. Especially, I think the flower garden and the cliff is the best expression of kissing one’s lover. Even though I don’t know exactly about what Klimt’s intention was, it is the best way of showing happiness, ecstasy and thrill simultaneously, I think.

All factors of the painting, including colors, backgrounds and shapes, express the feelings we have when we are with a beloved person and kiss. So when I see The Kiss, I get an impression that I want to kiss my lover like them and feel emotions that it seems to be on the cliff with my lover. That’s why I love this painting best. It lets me have romantic feelings. Therefore, I recommend you to appreciate The Kiss in detail, then you will be able to find meanings you didn't know until now and feel like falling in love as I did.

(Sources of information : NAVER knowledge encyclopedia, NAVER news)