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By the end of the 19th century Vienna, an uptight,
stuffy and conservative city was changing.
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A group of artists, architects, musicians and social
scientists were experimenting in ways which would
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transform their individual fields. On the one hand
Vienna was the traditional city of academic art,
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Johann Strauss and the Habsburg empire, but on
the other, it was the home of radical artists
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such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, who were
shocking audiences with explorations of sexual themes.
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Architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos were
challenging imperial design, while Gustav Mahler
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was transforming the musical life of the city.
And Sigmund Freud was about to change forever
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the way we think about the human mind.
Vienna was experiencing a new 'golden age'.
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It was a city at the forefront of modernity,
and it would shape the 20th century.
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In 1857 Emperor Franz Josef ordered the
building of the Ringstrasse. It is a series
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of tree-lined boulevards that circled the city.
The Bourgeoisie of Vienna rushed to build huge
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mansions on the Ringstrasse alongside new
public buildings. These ostentatious palaces
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needed to be decorated and Gustav Klimt and
his brother were very successful mural painters.
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Gustav Klimt became one of the world's most famous
artists without the usual personality cult we expect.
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We know very little about him except that
he never married but was a prodigious lover and
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left behind 14 children by as many women. He lived
with his mother his whole life and was terrified
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of mental illness. Almost a classic case study for
Sigmund Freud. And like Freud he placed sexuality
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at the forefront of his work. Klimt didn't go to
a fine arts school, but rather an arts and crafts school.
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A more practical education, where he learned
skills and techniques. His lifetime goal was to
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demolish the snobby distinction between fine art
and craft. At the age of 20, Klimt and his younger
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brother were creating allegorical murals for the
new public buildings in Vienna. Their friezes were
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conservative mythological images - in keeping with
19th century academic painting. But it is in his
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background as a decorative artist, that we find
the roots of Klimt's later more radical work.
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When both his brother and father died suddenly,
Klimt's art would take a dramatic and darker turn.
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He would still use allegory and symbolism, but he
would transform it into a new language that was
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more overtly sexual and for some more disturbing.
He was commissioned to decorate the university of
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Vienna. The paintings would cause a huge public
scandal with their sexually provocative themes
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and Klimt was accused of producing pornography.
Women were advised to stay away from his work and
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the paintings were rejected by the university.
Klimt formed a radical new society called the
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Vienna Secession with other young artists. Their
aim was to bring art, craft, architecture and design
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together - in one great movement. The secession
broke away from the pompous historical painting
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fashionable in the late 19th century, and gave
contemporary art its first dedicated space.
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In a nation still very traditional this can be
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seen as the formal beginning
of modern art in Austria.
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Ironically, a painting that is seen as a romantic
ideal by man, was painted by a man who was never
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romantically involved and was afraid of intimacy.
A man who had an obsession with sex, bedded most of
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his models - as well as his subjects - but went
home each night to the mother he adored and
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two unmarried sisters. The painting is square -
at six foot by six foot, it is practically life-size,
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making us connect to it on a human scale.
It is self-contained and deceptively simple.
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It shows Klimt as the consummate draftsman,
an artist who drew every day from life models.
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There are several things which make
the kiss unique - the deliberate contrast
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between the realistically rendered flesh and the
two-dimensional abstract ornamentation, creates
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an effect almost like photo montage. The bodies
are painted with a cool contemporary sensuality.
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They are encased like an ancient Egyptian
mummy in cascades of gold and abstract patterns.
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And everything appears to float in a golden
cosmos - outside of time and space. The background
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is Klimt's new technical invention. He covered the
entire canvas with sheets of gold leaf and then
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painted over the gold with a dark wash, which
he then flicked with flakes of gold on top.
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If we look at where the background
meets the meadow - which is primed
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in the conventional way - we can see how the
artist was playing with different textures .
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He used eight different types of gold in The Kiss.
He also builds up texture underneath the gold leaf
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to give it a three-dimensional aspect - to catch
the light - in the same way Byzantine mosaics do.
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It is gold that we think of when we think of
Klimt. His father was a goldsmith and Klimt had
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a lifelong fascination with the precious metal.
He traveled to Ravenna to see the Byzantine mosaics,
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a major influence on his 'Golden period.'
The Kiss, with the dazzling glow of an altarpiece
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has become an icon for the post-religious age, and
the Gold surrounding them almost hints at a halo.
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Gold leaf is fragile and comes in gossamer thin
sheets. For the relief sections Klimt would use
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gesso, which is a mixture of animal glue and chalk
dust. He would paint the thick mixture on in the
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required pattern and then apply the gold leaf.
The excess was then discarded. Apart from Gold,
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the other precious metal we see here looks like silver,
but is in fact Platinum, more expensive than Gold
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but unlike Silver it doesn't Oxidise. There is more
pure Gold than you think in The Kiss. If we look
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at this ultraviolet scan. All of the parts which
are dark, including the background, have a layer of
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pure Gold leaf - only the white patches reveal where
there is no Gold. Even after applying Gold leaf to
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the surface we can see how Klimt is happy to paint
over the gold and mix both materials and textures.
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He doesn't use Gold for its realistic qualities.
It is too shiny and reflective of light - but rather as
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an object of desire. Gold is an indicator of
wealth, and its resistance to tarnishing has
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ensured it was used to decorate the tombs of
Gods and in religious paintings for centuries.
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Klimt uses Gold to confer status on the Nouveau
rRche women of Vienna - to suggest opulence, wealth
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and beauty. The theme was not new but the overt
eroticism was. Klimt knew Edvard Munch's painting
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from over 10 years before, and both artists
were aware of Rodin's even earlier sculpture.
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The first time Klimt painted an embrace, he shows
a romantic couple about to kiss. The artist who
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avoided any form of romantic relationship,
places the disembodied figures of old-age,
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disease and death above the young couple. Passion
he tells us, is fraught with uncertainty.
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The Beethoven frieze was part of a successful group
show of the Secessionists inspired by Beethoven's
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9th symphony. A watershed in both Vienna's
AND Klimt's artistic evolution. The freieze by
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Klimt features an embracing couple, similar in both
composition and aesthetics to The Kiss.
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'Love' here is surrounded by demonic creatures. The
Stoclet frieze, a privately commissioned mosaic, features
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an embrace of an erotic nature - a similar motif to
The Kiss. As in the Stoclet frieze, Klimt suggests
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the couple in the kiss are naked under their
garments. It is worth reminding ourselves what the
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average Viennese couple were wearing at the time,
to understand why it was considered so provocative.
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Klimt was an admirer of Aubrey Beardsley, and the
clothes were inspired by his Art Nouveau style,
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as well as the organic forms
of 'The Arts and Crafts Movement.'
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The clothes are a visual metaphor for the
emotional and physical expression of erotic love.
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His robe is emblazoned with upright black
rectangles, a symbol of thrusting masculinity.
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Her robe is studied with whirls and spirals said to
symbolize the Ova. I don't think it's an accident
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that the shape of the entwined couple is itself
a Golden Phallic symbol. Klimt's figures often
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have a stiff 'statue-like' appearance, and he was
said to be inspired by the Belgian sculptor George Minne,
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who used what was called the perfect "Gothic"
body - slim, expressive and youthful. Minne was also
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influential for younger Austrian artists like Egon
Schiele and Oscar Kokoshka - both followers of Klimt.
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Like Monet and van Gogh, Klimt collected Japanese
prints, which were hugely influential. 'Japonisme' can
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be seen in the very simplified composition, but
also in the tight cropping - with the man's head
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painted very close to the top of the canvas.
A departure from traditional Western art.
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Klimt's complicated feelings towards 'love'
come out in The Kiss, and the figures are
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pictured on a patch of flowery meadow BUT
they are teetering at the edge of a cliff.
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Despite the religious comparisons with icons,
the lovers, with garlands in their hair, have a
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distinctly 'pagan' look. The man wears a crown of
vines and the woman wears a crown of flowers,
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suggesting that this is the consummation
of some kind of ritual. One theory is that
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in this picture Klimt is representing the myth
of Apollo and Daphne from Ovid's metamorphosis.
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Most artists when depicting the story show the
moment Daphne is running from Apollo, as she begs
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the Gods to transform her into a Laurel tree, to
protect her from Apollo's advances. But the last
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paragraph of Metamorphosis refers specifically
to "a kiss" AFTER she has transformed into a tree,
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which is rarely portrayed. The legs of the woman
in The Kiss seem to be sinking into the ground,
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as tendrils of Golden Laurel leaves, emanating
from her body, root themselves into the meadow,
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and suggest Daphne's transformation into a Laurel
tree. The man's face is not shown to the viewer.
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Klimt almost exclusively painted women, and when
men did feature in his paintings they were just an
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accessory. He is bent downwards to press a kiss to
the woman's cheek, and his hands are cradling the
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woman's face, which is turned towards the viewer,
Her eyes are closed like a trance or in ecstasy.
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She has one arm wrapped around the man's neck,
the other resting gently on his hand, and her face
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is upturned to receive the man's kiss... or is it?
One of the great mysteries of The Kiss is who
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are the models? It is suggested that this
is a portrait of Klimt and Emilie Flöge.
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She was a businesswoman, and an avant-garde
fashion designer. A woman way ahead of her
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time, and a companion to Klimt for 27 years.
It seems that the relationship may have begun
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as an infatuation - on his part. But matured
into an extremely close friendship that was
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intellectually and emotionally intimate rather
than physical. The actual life model was more
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likely to be a woman known as "Red Hilda" who she
bears a strong resemblance to. She was the model
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for many of his paintings and one of Klimt's many
lovers. There has been endless debate about what
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exactly is the relationship between the couple.
Is it romantic? Is she bending to receive the kiss
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or turning away? If we do take it as an allegorical
portrait of Klimt and Flöge, then the ambiguity
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of the relationship in the painting is a perfect
reflection of their own ambiguous relationship.
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The man tries to kiss her but she turns her head
away, there is a tenderness there an acceptance
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of affection, but she is not compliant. Her eyes
and mouth are firmly closed - unusual for Klimt's
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paintings, where the woman often has an open
'sexualized' mouth. Could The Kiss, long thought
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to be the most romantic painting in history,
actually be a depiction of a platonic relationship?
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When it was shown in Vienna, it was immediately
bought by the Austrian government. Klimt's work,
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once considered pornographic and deviant, was
put on display in one of the Imperial palaces.
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Gustav Klimt would be part of the last
cultural explosion before the demise of
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the Austro-Hungarian empire, a political entity
that was ridiculously antiquated in its day and
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was to die in the same year that Klimt did - 1918.
Egon Schiele would die just a few months later.
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And just like that, an intense period of
creativity and vitality drew to an end.
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Klimt is often dismissed by critics today, as an
artist who simply produced 'decorative artifice.'
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But his work served as an important role in bridging
academic realism and the coming world of abstraction.
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He pushed the boundaries of what Freud
called "the misunderstood and much maligned erotic."
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And depicted the human figure as never before.
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And then he gave us 'The Kiss', one of the most
compelling and truthful images of the 20th century.
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We don't really know about
Klimt's thoughts on 'The Kiss',
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but maybe we don't need to. As he once said: "If you
want to know about me - just look at my paintings"
