Kiss Painting

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is one of his most famous and most expensive pieces of art to have ever been sold. It's popularity is perhaps due to the painting's effective transformation of a simple human act of compassion into a work of art that encompasses much more than just a simple kiss between a man and a woman. The Kiss painting was created with conventional oil paint as well as modern gold leaf, giving it an extra distinct and contemporary quality. Klimt's use of both modern and classic tools to create the Kiss Painting echoes the equally contrasting theme of the painting itself.

The couple is depicted in a passionate embrace that is emphasized in bright, vibrant golds while the rest of the background blends into a darker, shimmering tone. Resembling the work of modernists such as Degas, the painting experiments with both two and three dimensional styles. Experts such as writer Frank Whitford have pointed out the underlying sexual nature apparent in Klimt The Kiss by referencing the suggestive shape that the man and the woman make together. Based on the erotic themes present in Klimt's previous work, it's not surprising that images evoking liberation through eroticism would also surface in The Kiss painting.

Although most interpreters view the woman's role in The Kiss painting as willfully submissive, others have argued that she is turning away from the kiss but is unable to escape from the man's embrace. Klimt The Kiss may also be depicting the woman as a kind of lascivious seductress that provoked the man's dominating approach to the act.