Original subtitles

If the success of a work of art

could be judged by the number of times it is reproduced,

then The Kiss is arguably the most successful painting

in all of Western art.

The trouble is, The Kitsch threatens to obliterate The Kiss.

That amount of reproduction does influence the way we look at the original.

The problem is that you can just stop seeing the original,

stop seeing what is so unique about it.

I do think The Kiss is an extraordinarily sexy picture.

It is the peak moment of erotic love.

That is the moment in which everything else ceases to exist

and people will sacrifice anything for that one moment.

It is that powerful.

Behind this exotic image

lurks one of Europe's odder artists, Gustav Klimt.

He loved cats, but he loved women much more.

And he had a sex life that put Casanova in the shade.

His fixation with sex is even visible in the very shape of The Kiss,

an erect phallus.

And yet, this picture of intense love

may have a very different, almost feminist meaning.

This enigmatic image

has an intriguing story to tell.

Here it is, one of the icons of modern art,

something that we imagine that we know all too well.

But in fact, it's infinitely, infinitely mysterious.

The kiss is an intensely passionate image.

The two lovers are in a field of flowers

on what seems to be the edge of a cliff.

The man is dressed in a luxurious robe,

decorated with real gold.

He cups the woman's face in his strong hands

and leans forward to kiss her.

Behind the lovers is a vast, flat, golden void.

They are in an unreal world,

caught between their intimate embrace

and the infinite beyond.

The kiss made its first public appearance

in Vienna in May 1908.

It was received with great enthusiasm

and bought immediately

for the Austrian National Collection.

An art critic of the time,

Ludwig Hevesi,

admired the painting extravagantly.

The new lovers stand in a sea of flowers

like Homer's old Zeus on Mount Ida

when Hera embraced him once more

and a carpet of flowers broke forth from the earth

and the lovers wear festive robes

just right for a festival of love.

The whole world is festive again.

What Klimt himself thought of the work,

we have no idea.

Throughout his life,

he resisted writing or talking about himself or his work.

I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word,

especially if I have to say something about myself or my work.

Whoever wants to know something about me

ought to look carefully at my pictures

and try to see in them what I am and what I want to do.

Today, the kiss hangs in the Austrian gallery

at the Schloss Belvedere in Vienna.

The kiss is a large painting,

almost six feet square,

and every year hundreds of thousands of visitors

make what amounts to a pilgrimage

to absorb its mysteries.

The man and the woman's bodies

are separated by different patterns.

The kiss has become an icon over the past decades,

comparable with a religious painting,

and that's how many people see it.

Most people coming here,

especially younger people,

when you watch them

and they see this painting for the first time

in the original,

it's almost a religious moment for them.

This is quite amazing,

but that's how people interpret it

or feel it.

It's beyond words, I think.

It's tender, it's gentle, soft.

Perhaps it's really an ideal type of love.

This is a picture I already have sent to her

because you can get it everywhere as a postcard.

I think the woman is not very comfortable.

It looks very passionately,

but if you try to be like this,

your neck is very damaged.

It's kind of what you would like it to be like

to be kissed.

Action!

John Malkovich is being Gustav Klimt

in the film A Viennese Fantasy,

made in 2005.

He has views on the kiss.

It is a combination of the image

and the way he's presented it.

Obviously, a very romantic image,

but I think there is a belief from him

in that image and romanticism.

I do think he expresses a certain longing

of a certain period

that probably lives on.

I'm very aware of the fact

that the two figures

seem to be merging

into one extraordinary mass,

almost like a sort of strange organism.

And that's to do with the fact

that they're not naked.

It's tantalizing.

It's almost as if he's playing a game with us

and daring us to imagine

what actually is going on

beneath all these gowns and costumes.

I think when you look at the kiss,

the first resonance you get

is to do with the sacred.

And what does Klimt find sacred?

It's not God.

It's this moment of erotic fulfillment

between two people.

That is what he finds sublime.

The kiss is a secular icon of the sublime,

and it has a very distinctive

and probably deliberate shape.

Together, the man and the woman

form the shape of an erect penis,

and I think that that's intentional.

And consequently,

I do think that it's not merely about the kiss,

but about sex

and about the fulfillment of sex

between a man and a woman.

When he painted the kiss,

Klimt was 45 years old

and by far the most famous artist in Vienna.

But he still lived at home

with his mother and two unmarried sisters,

who tended to his every whim.

Indeed, his family presented Klimt

as leading a rather dull life,

a game of skittles,

home for dinner and early to bed.

But behind the respectable facade,

he was a man with a ferocious sexual appetite.

He was obsessed by women,

and he had a fixation with redheads.

It's no surprise

that the woman in the kiss

has red hair.

Hair, hair, the end of mine,

I'm in the spell of your charm divine.

It's entirely appropriate

that the kiss began life

in fin de siècle, Vienna.

At the time,

Vienna was a prosperous,

cosmopolitan city,

capital of the vast Austro-Hungarian empire

ruled over by the ageing

Franz Josef and his court.

But in its cafes and coffee houses,

some of the great young minds of Europe

were formulating ideas

that would revolutionize the 20th century.

Vienna must have been

one of the most remarkable cities in Europe

at the end of the 19th century.

This grand imperial capital

was also the home

to incredible ferment

in all of the arts.

You had great musicians

like Mahler and Schoenberg

doing extraordinarily innovative music.

You had painters like Klimt

and his contemporaries

breaking new ground.

You had people like Freud

doing their world-shaking research.

So it must have been

a hothouse

of the like of which

is rarely seen.

Vienna had been transformed

in the latter part

of the 19th century

by the construction

of a wide boulevard,

the Ringstrasse,

around the old city center.

Lined with grand,

monumental buildings,

it gave the impression

of a confident city,

smugly at ease

with its imperial pretensions.

But the realities beneath

were very different.

As the satirist

Karl Krauss pointed out,

Vienna was built

almost literally

on foundations of hypocrisy.

Karl Krauss wrote

an extraordinary play

called The Last Days of Mankind.

When he described Vienna

as a testing ground

for mass destruction

or laboratory

of the apocalypse,

and he was being

extraordinary perspicacious

in seeing all kinds

of contradictions

between what appeared

to be the surface

of life,

the comfortable,

bourgeois,

Viennese society,

and what really went on.

And what really went on

was huge amounts

of illicit sex,

vast amounts of poverty.

There were literally

hundreds and hundreds

of people

who were sleeping at night

in the drainage system

because they'd got

nowhere else to stay.

There were double standards

in everything,

but above all in sex.

All was not well

in what superficially

seemed to be

a tremendously successful,

a tremendously secure society.

And when they weren't

having sex,

the Viennese

were studying it

or reading about it.

They were fascinated

by human sexuality.

Vienna was a center

for studies into sex

and sexuality

in the late 19th century,

not only Freud,

but many of his contemporaries,

the relationship

between sexuality

and society,

the worry that sexuality

led to the decadence

of society.

All of these were concerns

in the air.

The kiss is, I think,

kind of an emblem

of Vienna at that time.

All of these issues

of sexuality,

of eroticism,

of decoration,

all come together

in this one picture.

Klimt couldn't have been

more at home

in the sexually charged

atmosphere of Vienna

as his studio routine showed.

After changing

into his favorite blue robe,

with nothing underneath,

it was said,

he settled down

to the day's painting.

He liked to work alone

and undisturbed,

but then company

was always waiting,

young models ready

to satisfy his needs

of the moment,

artistic or sexual.

A contemporary writer

described life

in Klimt's studio.

Here, he was surrounded

by mysterious female beings

who, while he sat silently

in front of his easel,

were lolling

and lazing about,

taking life easy.

They were always ready

at a mere sign

from the master

to freeze obediently

as soon as he spotted

a pose or a movement,

and his sense of beauty

was stimulated

to record it

in a quick sketch.

He would make a drawing

of one of his models

to give him

five or ten minutes off

from the more demanding task

of making a painting.

And I think it would be fair

to say that none

of Klimt's models

was particularly safe

in his presence.

He was extraordinarily

interested in women

from a sexual point of view.

Klimt's friend

Remigius Guiling

caricatured

the studio scene.

One naked handmaiden,

red-haired, of course,

hands the master

some cake

and a glass of wine.

Another simply

lolls about

and takes life easy.

Whatever Klimt

was saying

about human love

in The Kiss,

it certainly didn't come

from any settled view

of partnership

between man and woman.

Klimt's complicated

relationship with women

is based on the fact

that he couldn't get away

throughout his life

from his mother.

This was, to say,

the kind of,

almost the kind

of Peter Pan effect.

It was the lifelong passion

to be the little boy,

to be little Gustav.

not little enough,

as it turned out,

because Klimt fathered

at least three

illegitimate children

and probably many more.

At his death,

no less than 14 women

filed paternity suits

against his estate,

and four were successful.

He didn't seem at all

interested in being a father

in a classical sense,

but he did seem to have

an extraordinary number

of illegitimate children.

How many have you got?

Five?

Six?

Clearly,

he had a complicated relationship

with his mother

and his sister,

and clearly,

he didn't appear

to be willing

to allow that bond

to be broken

or shifted

in a way

that could allow him

to create

another bond

equally as strong.

And I suppose

you could make the case

that as long as he lived

with his mother

and his sister also,

he was safe.

I'll see you both

this evening.

Yeah, we'll go.

What do you want

for dinner?

Klimt's sister did her best

to cover up

her brother's

wayward life,

but in private,

his very respectable mother

must have been

driven to despair.

The kiss was by no means

the only sexually charged

picture in Klimt's catalogue.

His portrait

of the Old Testament

heroine Judith,

seducer and decapitator

of the Assyrian

general Holofernes,

is both challengingly

raunchy

and as up-to-date

as a fashion plate.

In Danai,

the mythological woman

is impregnated

by Zeus

in the form

of a shower of gold

that rushes

through her parted thighs.

Images like this

gained Klimt

a certain notoriety,

but when he was

commissioned to produce

a set of paintings

for the University of Vienna,

he finally overstepped

the mark.

These pictures

struck the Viennese

bourgeoisie

as baffling

and worse,

pornographic.

When Klimt's

University paintings

were exhibited,

it created a huge

scandal,

and it prompted

the comment

by this ethics

professor saying

we're not against

nakedness in art,

we're not against

freedom in art,

we're against

ugliness in art,

and I think

that's a direct

statement to

Klimt's figure style.

It made them

very uncomfortable.

It was too realistic.

It wasn't what

they were expecting

in terms of

conventional academic

figure style.

The university

authorities declined

to accept

Klimt's offerings,

and the snub

hurt him deeply.

Posterity isn't

well-placed to

make a judgment

because the paintings

were destroyed

by fire during

the Second World War.

These copies were

made for the film

A Viennese Fantasy.

But Klimt

wasn't alone

in his struggle.

In 1897,

he'd become

a leading member

of the Vienna

Secession,

a group of artists

who set out

to break

the stranglehold

of the official academy.

Just a year

after they formed,

the Secessionists

boasted a fine

new Art Nouveau

building,

and in 1902,

they held

a huge exhibition

dedicated to Beethoven.

Klimt's contribution

was a magnificent

frieze,

an idiosyncratic

and erotic

interpretation

of Beethoven's

Ninth Symphony,

with the words

of Schiller's poem

Ode to Joy.

And significantly,

the climax

of that joy

is an embrace.

In the final panel,

culminating

in a version

of the kiss,

we've got this

embracing,

and this is,

so to speak,

the fulfillment,

the liberation

of humanity,

if you like,

in joy,

in fulfillment.

His fulfillment image

was a kiss,

and that was related

to the Schiller,

the line in Schiller's poem,

Diese Kuss der ganze Welt,

this kiss of the whole world,

which Klimt

was embodying

in that image.

In the Beethoven frieze,

Klimt had created

an image

that was a direct

ancestor

of the kiss.

Klimt began work

on the kiss

in 1907,

and it was the high point

in his so-called

golden period.

At the time,

visions in gold

must have been swirling

around his head.

His extensive use

of this precious metal

had been hugely influenced

by a trip he made

to Italy in 1903.

He went to Ravenna,

where he saw

the Byzantine mosaics

in the church

of San Vitale.

There was a quality

in Klimt

which I would almost

call religious.

As we know,

he was immensely

impressed

by the golden

mosaics

of Ravenna,

which represent

heaven.

There is a relationship

between Ravenna

and what he was

trying to do

in the kiss,

in the sense

that the kiss

is a secular image

of a religious idea.

The kiss being

almost erotic heaven

connects with

the Ravenna experience.

For Klimt,

the flatness

of the mosaics

and their lack

of perspective

and depth

only enhanced

their golden brilliance.

And he started

to make unprecedented

use of gold

and silver leaf

in his own work.

In the kiss

you can see

the different uses

of gold

in the whole painting.

There's gold

in the part

of the male

and female dress

and there's gold leaf

for example

here with the flowers

and then

the whole background

initially was

covered

with gold leaf

and then

got a layer

of color

but very,

very thin

so that it

would just gloom

and then

there are speckles

of gold

which were just

thrown

so to say

on the painting.

The fascinating thing

is that Klimt

also added

a plaster

to make the

painting look

three-dimensional

so you can see

in these square forms

here

or up here

in this

kind of

paradise tree

pattern

that he

added

some material

before he applied

the gold.

gold.

The application

of gold leaf

requires great skill

and it's possible

that Klimt

learnt the techniques

from his father

who had worked

as an engraver

of gold and silver

artifacts.

To build up

the surface

as Klimt did

we used something

called gesso

which is a mixture

of animal glue

to which chalk

is added

to build it up

into a thick mixture

about the consistency

of cream

and it has

to be applied

warm.

It's best to get

it applied

in one go

to get a nice

smooth surface

running wet

into wet.

Klimt used

maybe eight

different types

of gold leaf

and also

the method

how he brought

the gold leaf

to the canvas

is maybe

in different parts

different.

We're not sure

about how

but there are

different techniques

which I think

he knew

and he also

used.

He also

put some

other colors

to the gold

and some shellac

and also

some paint

to have

all these

different kinds

of brilliancy

that you can

have with gold

and paint.

When the kiss

was first shown

in public

it was not quite

the painting

it is today

and it was not

called the kiss.

In a letter

postmarked

the 16th of July

1908

Klimt refers to

the painting

as Liebespaar

or lovers

and wrote

the painting

lovers is not

quite ready

as soon as

the exhibition

is finished

I will

complete it

immediately.

This photograph

shows the painting

at the time

of the 1908

exhibition.

We know

that Klimt

painted rather

slowly

and that he

really developed

his paintings

and so it's

very interesting

to have a photograph

of an earlier

stage of the kiss

where we can see

how he developed

this composition.

So initially

the painting

would have ended

here to the left

and later on

he added

this other segment

and you can tell

from the treatment

of colour

and forms

that this is

quite a later

edition

you can tell

that it's much

more detailed

here

whereas to the left

it's much more

broadly painted

maybe unfinished

but nearly every

painting in Klimt

is unfinished.

In fact

Klimt made

several changes

to his original

composition.

He added flowers

to the woman's

shoulder strap

he extended

her feet

into the golden

background.

He gave her

a tight-fitting

dress which

emphasised her

bottom

and made the

outline of her

body much sexier.

And he painted

in many more

golden strands

of the grass

of Parnassus

an ancient

symbol of fertility.

They caress

the woman's

calves

and add

to the sensuality

of the picture.

Another significant

change was made

in the robe

of the man.

There was

the lower segment

with a

zigzag pattern

and now

it has the

same rectangular

shape of

ornamentation

as has the

rest of his

robe.

Initially

the two

persons were

clearly separated

by a strict

outline

and there

would be

the rounder

ornament

on the

female side

and the

more strict

rectangular

on the

male side

but now

he has

added a

zone in

the middle

where these

two ornaments

unite.

They now

begin to

mingle in this

part in the

middle so

it's like a

union of

the ornament

we can see

here.

The hard-edged

rectangular

ornamentation

on the man's

robe has

been interpreted

as representing

masculinity.

On the

woman's dress

the shapes

are softer

and rounded

seen as

indicating

femininity.

But in

blending them

together it's

interesting to

speculate that

Klimt may have

been influenced

by a best-selling

book of the

time.

It was

called Sex

and Character

and was

written by

Otto Weininger.

Weininger

proposed that

human beings

were on a

continuum

with perfect

masculinity

on one

hand and

perfect

femininity

on the

other.

And what

he saw as

masculine

was a

logical

frame

of mind.

Femininity

is illogical.

Masculine

as aggressive,

feminine

as passive.

Weininger's

thought I

believe was

very much

related to

the imagery

of the

kiss.

You have

the active

man,

the passive

woman,

but you

have them

joined.

It was

that joining

that Weininger

found the

most fascinating.

Whether Klimt

read the

writing of

Otto Weininger

or not I

don't know,

but I would

be very

surprised if

he were

not aware

of them.

But there

is one

big question

about the

kiss that

has long

intrigued

art

historians,

given the

interlocking

between Klimt's

art and

sex life.

Are the

two lovers

modelled on

real people?

It has been

suggested that

the man is

based on

Klimt himself,

and a figure

resembling the

artist does

appear in

many of his

sketches of

an embrace,

but otherwise

the evidence

is scanty.

The more

intriguing subject

for speculation,

however,

is undoubtedly

the identity

of the woman.

The prime

suspect for

the woman

in the

kiss is

seen here

with Klimt

on one of

their many

holidays together

on the

Attersee

in Upper

Austria.

She was

Emily

Flöge,

his constant

companion

for 20

years,

in spite

of his

many

affairs.

For a long

time,

there was

a discussion

is it

Emily

or is it

not,

and now

I think

almost all

the critics

and connoisseurs

are pretty

sure it

is

Emily

Flöge

who was

the

sitter

behind

this

image.

Five years

before

the kiss,

Klimt painted

a full-length

portrait

of Emily

Flöge.

She was

an independent

woman who

ran a very

successful

fashion house

in Vienna.

Though

they were

always close,

they never

married.

And for

once with

Klimt,

it's possible

that they

weren't

even lovers.

I think

she loved

Klimt

very much.

He was

her,

he was

her,

her,

Lebensmensch,

you say

in German.

It is

a person

who accompanies

for your

whole life.

He was

for her

and she

was

for him.

And this

is sometimes

better

than a

short

love affair.

But what

is the

evidence

that the

woman in

the kiss

is Emily

Flöge?

Surprisingly,

the composition

of the

picture

may offer

a clue.

There could

be a

compositional

evidence

that it's

Emilia

shown in

the painting

because Klimt

spent his

summers

with Emily

on the

Attersee

and did a

painting called

The Sunflower

which was

painted 1906

maybe 1907

and even

critics of

the time

saw this

painting

like a

symbolist

portrait

of Emily.

And if

one can

agree

on that

that this

is a

symbolist

portrait

of

Emilia

then it's

only a

short

step

to the

kiss

because

if we

look at

the general

composition

both are

squares

if you

look at

the heads

there

on the

upper

edge

of the

painting

and

what is

most striking

if you

look at

the base

of the

painting

at this

flower bed

it has

exactly

the same

outline

in both

paintings

so it

might well

be that

Klimt

in referring

to this

composition

also referred

to the

happiness

of the

time

on the

Attersee

Another piece

of evidence

allegedly

favouring

Emily

Flöger

was turned

up in

the 1980s

by Alice

Ströbel

while preparing

the complete

catalogue

of Klimt's

drawings

she came

across

a rough

little sketch

of an

embrace

drawn in

1917

It was

in a

notebook

which

contained

a number

of all

kinds

of

drawings

by

Gustav

Klimt

There

were

drawings

of

flowers

and

then

two

or

three

small

sketches

showing

Klimt

and

Emily

Flöger

and

we

definitely

know

that

because

although

the

sketches

were

not

very

clear

he

wrote

her

name

down

Emily

So

I am

convinced

that

this

is

evidence

that

the

woman

in

the

kiss

is

Emily

Flöger

So

Emily

Flöger

has

her

loyal

supporters

though

a

sketch

made

ten

years

after

the

painting

is

not

the

kind

of

evidence

that

would

stand

up

in

court

then

again

Emily

Flöger

has

rivals

for

the

starring

role

in

this

picture

one

is

Adel

Bloch

Bauer

the

wife

of

a

wealthy

Viennese

industrialist

a year

before

the

kiss

Klimt

produced

a

sumptuous

portrait

portrait

of her

and

he

painted

her

again

five

years

later

Inevitably

I suppose

too

it's been

suggested

that

the

woman

is

Adelie

Bloch

Bauer

there's

no doubt

whatever

that Klimt

had an affair

with her

it also

seems to

me

no doubt

whatever

that

she

is

the

woman

in

an

extraordinarily

sexy

painting

called

Judith

but

I

don't

really

see

that

she's

the

woman

in

the

kiss

this

is

not

of

course

to

say

that

Klimt

wasn't

directly

inspired

by

all

his

wonderful

memories

of

having

sex

with

a

wide

variety

of

women

which

of

course

is

what

he

did

have

throughout

his

career

So

perhaps

the

model

for

the

kiss

was

one

in

this

woman

Hilde

Roth

I

had

a

private

lecture

in

a

house

and

somebody

told

me

that

there

is

a

guy

who

was

the

nephew

of

a

model

of

Klimt

and

so

afterwards

I

went

to

him

and

asked

him

and

he

said

yes

my

aunt

she

was

called

Hilde

Roth

was

model

of

Klimt

Hilde

Roth

had

thick

red

hair

which

and

she

was

known

as

Red

Hilde

there's

strong

visual

evidence

that

she's

the

star

in

more

than

one

of

Klimt's

paintings

the

look

in her

eyes

in

this

photograph

is

repeated

in

woman

with

hat

and

feather

boa

and

the

impish

look

in

this

photograph

can

be

seen

in

goldfish

it's

also

more

than

likely

that

she

modelled

for

Danai

she

certainly

told

her

nephew

that

she

but

she

can

hardly

have

been

alone

in

making

that

claim

the

kiss

is

one

of

the

famous

pictures

in

the

world

now

and

so

it's

very

natural

that

everybody

once

his

people

would

like

put

names

to

the

couple

nothing

can

be

said

with

any

certainty

and

perhaps

the

huge

popularity

of

the

kiss

rests

on

the

very

fact

that

it's

not

two

recognisable

people

engaged

in a

moment

of

tenderness

it's

inevitable

that people

should look

at this

painting

and say

aha

that

has

to be

Klimt

himself

but

I

don't

see

any

evidence

for

that

whatever

I

mean

these

are

symbolic

figures

it's

a

symbolic

painting

if

Klimt

had

wanted

to

paint

the

woman

as

a

daily

blockbauer

or

Emilia

Pflueger

or

anybody

else

he

would

have

done

rather

than

just

leave

her

as

this

person

that

actually

can't

be

identified

the

woman

in

the

kiss

is

no

one

precisely

she

is

representative

of

series

of

paintings

featuring

an

embrace

that

Klimt

made

it

was

a

motif

that

he

found

endlessly

fascinating

Klimt

was

a

highly

eroticized

man

and

that's

what

drew

him

to

the

subject

of

the

embrace

he

loved

making

love

to

must

have

asked

himself

the

question

I

love

the

kiss

I

love

the

embrace

I

love

women

but

why

do

I

want

to

go

back

to

my

own

free

existence

Klimt's

first

picture of

an embrace

was done

in 1895

and called

simply

love

but

above the

young couple

whose lips

are about to

meet

Klimt reminds us

that physical

love can be

fleeting

with images

of envy

and hate

old age

and death

all these

can threaten

love

in his controversial

university paintings

an embracing

couple also appear

but next to them

is a decrepit

old woman

clasping her head

in anguish

in the Beethoven

frieze fulfillment

is only achieved

after the evil

forces have been

banished

and danger

and danger

threatens

in the kiss

there is a sense

of danger

in the picture

Klimt seems to have

put them

on the edge

of a void

there are the flowers

at their feet

on which they kneel

but we don't know

what's beyond there

will they tumble

into the infinite

beyond

in the kiss

itself

you just see

the cliff edge

as a threatening

thing

but there is

another picture

the three ages

of women

where you see

the woman

will get a child

and then she will

grow older

and love

will end

they were shown

in the Kunstschau

of 1908

together

and

so I think

Klimt had planned

them also together

he wanted to see

them as a diptych

so perhaps

Klimt

in the kiss

is warning us

about the fragility

of human love

or perhaps he had

another message

I'm very struck

by the fact

that although

it's called

the kiss

it's only the man

who's doing

the kissing

what is the woman

doing actually

she's receiving

a kiss

but only on the side

of her cheek

it's almost

as if she's refusing

to acknowledge

the attentions

of this man

whatever it is

she's not

giving herself

as much as we

might initially

suppose

I look at

the kiss

as a woman

for me

the kiss

it has something

to do

maybe this is a

little bit

dangerous

what I say

it has something

to do with

the emancipation

of woman

because for me

it's not a unity

of man

and woman

I see her feast

on his neck

if I love a man

I open my hand

and I embrace him

her other hand

puts him away

he tries

to kiss her

on her mouth

and she turns

her head away

so he can reach

her mouth

she is not

in that mood

to give him

her soul

her body

everything

what do you do

if you love a man

this face

it's a closed face

closed eyes

closed mouth

very closed mouth

look at other pictures

of by Klimt

and the mouth

is always a little

bit open

it's like a promise

but she

promised

nothing

and so I think

it is part

of the beginning

of the will

of a woman

I do

what I want

and not what

the man wants

there's a clue

there's a clue here

perhaps to Klimt's

womanizing

that some part

of woman remains

stubbornly invulnerable

to the dominance

of man

the kiss

was the last painting

in Klimt's golden

period

fashions in art

were evolving

rapidly

and decorative

beauty

was in decline

young and hard-hitting

modernists

like Oskar Kokoschka

and Egon Schiele

were challenging

Klimt's leadership

of the Vienna art world

a contemporary newspaper

cartoon shows the

upstarts looking down

on Klimt

whose harem

of naked models

still attends him

1908

when Klimt

made the painting

the kiss

it was

let's say

state-of-the-art

but the year

after

1909

it was an old-fashioned

painting

an old-fashioned thing

The kiss

had become old-fashioned

so quickly

because the young

artists were taking

Viennese art

down a new road

to expressionism

where violent

nervous

angular styles

would banish

the shimmering swirls

of the kiss

and Art Nouveau

even so

both Schiele

and Kokoschka

admired Klimt

and mirrored their knowledge

of his masterpiece

in their own work

Schiele in

Cardinal and Nun

seems to refer directly

to the composition

of the kiss

and just a year

after the kiss

Oskar Kokoschka

produced this design

for a theatre poster

This is a poster

Kokoschka did

for a play

called

Murderer Hope

of Women

and this is really

a main icon

for expressionism

Kokoschka changed

a little bit

the composition

and the meaning

of Gustav Klimt's

kiss

It's not a sweet girl

as in the kiss

and the woman

is a vampire

and she's sucking

the blood

from the man

and there are no flowers

in her hair

but he used also ornaments

and these are the nerves

this poster

is a reaction

on Gustav Klimt's kiss

this is for sure

the new artist's burden

In early 1918

Klimt suffered a stroke

which was quickly

followed by influenza

Gustav Klimt died

on the 6th of February

in 1918

he was 55 years old

he'd left the world

with one of the most

compelling images

of the 20th century

but in the long history

of western art

the kiss

was a dead end

Klimt of course

is an important artist

he's a very popular artist

but in terms

of the history of art

he's a very unimportant artist

although

he sums up

so much

in his work

about the society

in which he found

found himself

that in art historical terms

his effect

was negligible

so he's an artist

really

in a cul-de-sac

After his death

Klimt's reputation

was eclipsed

for more than

half a century

but in the late 50s

early 1960s

there were calls

for new kinds

of liberation

particularly

sexual liberation

and slowly

this image

from

half a century

before

began to seem

newly

relevant

and it seemed

every college

dorm

had this poster

up on its walls

what students

what students like

about the kiss

is that it appears

to be about sex

in a very kind of

learned

and

and

enhanced

kind of way

it's not your

porn

it's a safe way

of referring

to one's

openness to sex

I guess

without appearing

crass

or overbearing

the kiss

and predictably

it's been corrupted

and defaced

in the postmodern

world

this music

was inspired

by the kiss

when I was editor

of the erotic

review

we always used to

choose some

incredibly famous

image which was

in the public

imagination

for our cover artist

to pastiche

and she would

introduce

some

scandalous element

that didn't

previously exist

and I have to say

that the kiss

was a pretty obvious

candidate for treatment

At home in Austria

the painting is a beacon

to the world

a badge to promote

the cultural legacy

of the country

at the New Year's Day

concert in 1984

it was even presented

as a scene in motion

of the painting

Scientific research

on the fabric

of the painting

meanwhile

has been surprisingly

lacking

no x-ray

has ever been made

no major restoration

undertaken

so there's still

plenty to be discovered

about Klimt's

underlying intentions

and even his

surface methods

We as conservators

would love

to have the painting

the kiss

here

in our studios

because

there is

so much research

to be done

on it

we would love

to have a close

look

through a microscope

at the techniques

Klimt used

how he used

his

paint strokes

to see

how

he started

a painting

and that would

answer many questions

we still have

on this painting

but we don't

think

that it will be

possible

because that's

the painting

for which

most of the visitors

come to the museum

so to just take it away

for let's say

half a year

would be impossible

so we are afraid

it will never happen

but we would love

to have it here

Seldom has such an

outspokenly

shining image

given less away

it's a picture of a

cloaked man

visiting a kiss

upon the cheek

of an accepting

but not giving

woman

and people can see

in the kiss

a part of their own

life

reflected back to them

by turning these two

characters

into gods

really

you're not

making them

the everyday

person in the street

so anyone can

pin their desires

and hopes

on them

that's what myth

is about

about tacking your own

story

to an archetype

and that is why

it has the reverberations

it has

I think the kiss

is a masterpiece

in the

full sense

of that word

it's a masterly

demonstration

of what

Klimt was capable

of doing

really at the height

of his powers

and it's a defining

work

in that sense

it's what we turn

to

do

in order

to realise

what this artist

could do

at full steam

To be continued...

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