The Kiss

A kiss is the first foray into physical love. A kiss is an experiment in the possibility of love. A kiss is a demand. A kiss is a plea. A kiss is a language of universal understanding. A kiss is a silent question. A kiss is a silent commitment. A kiss is a silent demand. A kiss is a whisper of tenderness, or desire, or pledge. The elusive muse, the constant ache, the flitting promise of truth. Love is the artist’s inspiration; love is the artist’s definitive challenge. A kiss is the hidden language of love, and the artist is one who seeks to transcend the boundaries of translation.
The ways to portray a kiss are as numerous as the artists willing to court this muse. The Kiss by Gustav Klimt and The Kiss by Auguste Rodin are both works that seek the truth behind the mystery that is love. Is the truth behind the mystery of love found in the visual portrayal of a kiss? Love is as individual as the people who find it, or seek it, or spurn it. In his work, the artist seeks to translate this emotion for all and to all. To freeze the moment when love pauses in the chaos and irrelevance that is so often life. A kiss is the essence of love, and the way the artist relates to love emerges in the artist’s creation of The Kiss.

Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The Kiss is formed from of white marble. A man and a woman are consumed in an embrace with their lips pressed together while their naked bodies entwine in relaxed graceful repose. They emerged from the same white marble, formed from one into two and joined back into one. Born of the same stone they emerge in the perfect sameness in an embrace. The man is seated and is holding the woman against his body as she rests her weight on his strong leg. The woman has her arm wrapped around his neck while her lips seek his in searching passion. The woman’s face is turned from the viewer and her attention is completely turned to this moment of passion. The man is relaxed, his hand resting gently on her smooth hip. His other hand is not touching her but resting relaxed against his thigh. He is consumed in the tender moment. He is allowing her to be in command of the moment. He is giving her his physical power and she is giving herself to him. Complete resignation of the self in love is not a physical act but an emotional one. To give completely is to trust completely and to receive completely the soul of the lover. The man in Rodin's The Kiss is holding back, slightly, so that his lover may take the role of seeker and possessor. He is giving to her his masculine power, he is releasing control to the woman. And she is taking control and giving herself freely and forcefully to him. It is a kiss of passion and a kiss of familiarity, it is a kiss of endurance, it is a kiss that will transcend time. This is the love of compassion and understanding, it is the kiss of surrender. It is the kiss of physical tenderness and emotional infatuation.

Gustav Klimt’s portrayal of The Kiss is a painting of a man embracing a woman in a shower of gold and flowers. The woman’s face is turned towards the viewer. Her beauty is flawless and fragile like porcelain against his dark face and rough black beard. In her flawless perfection she is separate from him. Her arm is around his neck but her hand is stiff and resistant. Her other hand is on his hand as if in attempt to pull it from its possessive position on her neck. There is resistance in her body; the movement is turned away from him and unattainable. She may give her body but her soul and her emotions remain permanently closed to him. He is bent over her, dark against her pale beauty. His cloak is around her holding her frame in his possessive sphere. He tries to control her, and she is attempting to defy him. His face is bent over hers seeking her lips but she offers only her smooth white cheek. The man’s face is hidden from our view, he is consumed by the act of possession. He is demanding her love, and she is resisting his power over her. He is demanding her but he will not find her. He is unwilling to release control, unwilling to give his power away, unwilling to resign himself to her. The man wears a cloak of ridged blocky patterns, while the woman is wearing a dress of elusive circles and many colors. His is the passion of infatuation, the need to possess beauty and in possession to become one with the untouchable perfection that he seeks. He takes from her in attempt to have her. Her love is for the power of the man not for the man himself. This is the kiss of demand and denial. He will possess her physical body, but the physical body is a fleeting and empty thing to possess.

As an artist Rodin seems to be seeking the essence of form, allowing the muse to guide him. In his work Rodin is consumed in the moment of this kiss. He is letting the woman seek him and find him and fill him with her essence. She is giving and he is accepting. Klimt is attempting to possess a mystery as though if he can find its essence he will possess it. And in this painting I see the need of possession and the elusiveness of the object of infatuation. It is within his grasp but still unattainable. He is seeking constantly for the essence of love while Rodin allows the essence to emerge beneath his exploring hands.

In a kiss love is formed. In a kiss love is transformed. In a kiss love is promised. In a kiss love is denied. A kiss transcends the encumbering boundaries of language. It is a secret code, a silent promise a final good buy. In a kiss, there is spoken all the unspoken facets of love.