His fingers skimmed my waist, and he dipped his head towards mine. His breath fanned my face and I closed my eyes and waited for his lips to softly graze my own. His lips were cold, and the pressure infinitesimal at the beginning, suddenly heightened, reaching a fevered pitch.
What is a kiss? A simple grazing of lips or a careful tongue play? Without a doubt a kiss leads to temptation and provokes untold sensations, as it opens the floodgates of passion and desire. A kiss is a decisive moment in the trajectory of a couple, and it can define whether a love will rise or flounder.
Many artists have captured this intimate and meaningful gesture and interpreted it in different ways. Each kiss is unique and possesses a singular value.
Auguste Rodin, The Kiss, 1882
At the beginning, Rodin sought to represent a scene from Alighieri’s Divine Comedy where Francesca’s husband catches her with her lover and as a result, they are forced to wander around the rings of hell for eternity. The artist soon realized that the passion the sculpture expressed was the opposite of what Dante wished to portray, which is why he maintained the relationship between the couple a secret and was later on renamed The Kiss.
Edvard Munch, The Kiss, 1897
The Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch shows the hidden desires of a kiss. We see a couple passionately embracing while the room is shrouded in darkness. There are different versions of this painting; however, they all share the same passionate expression.
Henri Toulousse Lautrec, In Bed: The Kiss , 1892
The painter who wandered through the brothels and seething nightlife of Paris painted a series In Bed to adorn the hallways of the brothel on Rue d’Ambrosie. In this series, he paints lesbians who find comfort in each other in a place where they must lie with men.
Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss, 1907
Brancusi takes us back to our primitive days where instincts and passions ruled the mind. This sculpture resembles a monolith, which reminds us that when one kisses another, two become one.
Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907
This is probably Klimt’s most famous work. The Kiss is the epitome of the Viennese spirit at the turn of the century and of naturalist trends, such as the heavy use of gild and gold. There are many theories surrounding this painting, but we are guided by first impressions, and what we see is a couple passionately embracing, and how one easily succumbs to desire.
Pablo Picasso, The Kiss, 1969
Picasso’s work from this period is not lauded or recognized, yet we cannot take for granted his talent and unique creative spirit. It is a confident, solid, and original representation of a kiss that surpasses other painters of that same era.
Roy Lichtenstein, Kiss II, 1964
This pop artist decided to illustrate his work as if it were a comic book, and the spectator cannot help but be drawn to this world of dots and heavy lines he creates. This is one of his most popular works, and it has been replicated and reproduced around the world.
John Baldessari, The Kiss, 1986
John Baldessari is considered to be the Godfather of conceptual art and one of the most relevant artists in the pop movement. He decided to burn all of his work in 1970. Bladessari has created performances, videos, paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations, digital art, and even a cellphone app.
