On an Ugly Painting – A Review

Her left cheek attempts to lie on her left shoulder, but his hand is partly in the way. Her arm wraps up, under his wrist, and is trying to pull the hand back. His other arm is around her shoulders, pulling her toward him, his left hand reaches across her face, nearly touching her eye. She is on her knees. He is short, shorter than her, but is adorned with a laurel. Their clothes are a grotesque quilting of patterns set against the same yellow thread. His cloak, or a blanket, are beginning to envelop her, the decorative tassels drape across her legs and her backward bent toes dig into the meadow that ends in a steep cliff face that she finds her back toward.

The face captured is one of resignation. A feeling disgustingly familiar. Her features are soft, her hair is decorated with flowers. The flowers are lighter and bluer than the ones that pattern her dress and cover the meadow they are in.

His face is mostly unseen as he is twisting his neck away from the viewer and toward the woman’s face. His skin tone is olive compared to her pale. His features more angular. His nose is a sharp cut into her cheek. He is presumably kissing her chin, and she is presumably scratching his neck.

This painting came with my apartment. It, a desk, and a bed, were all that was in my room when I moved in. I was told that the landlord would happily take any of the furniture out of the room when I didn’t want it.

They still have not come and taken the painting.

Every time I see it, I feel slightly different about it. It started as a sort of humorous thing. I wondered if they were aware what the subject of the painting actually was. Or if maybe, they just liked that it seemed “renascence” enough for a hip-twenty-something who is freshly moving to the big city. But it was painted in 1908. And I don’t see it as romantic.

The painting is titled “The Kiss,” it’s considered the culmination of Gustave Klimt’s “Golden Period” because it was one of his last paintings to use gold foil. It’s arguably Klimt’s most famous works, and people generally associate it with all the cool parts about love and romance. But I don’t see that.

I see her contrasting hair and skin color to represent otherness, I see her as an outsider. The flowers in her hair don’t match the flowers in the meadow the couple find themselves in, furthering that idea. And everything about her appearance tells me she wants out.

But the way their clothes are painted makes it clear that Klimt intended for this couple to seem conjoined. As if they were being absorbed by each other. Most cite this as something beautiful about the artwork, but the resigned expression on the woman’s face and the twisted feet and shrugged neck suggest otherwise. She seems to have finally lost the fight against this man, and is being assimilated unwillingly.

I haven’t found another interpretation that matches my own. Which is fine. A copy of the art hangs in my room, and one might hang in yours as well, that doesn’t make either of our interpretations wrong, it just means that we’ve seen things and the world differently.

Maybe it is just a kiss. Maybe the man and the woman are happy. I’d prefer that, honestly. But whenever I try to look at it that way, the painting seems to force me to look at the awkward way the woman’s hand is on the man’s neck. And how her other arm is wedged between his body and hers. And how her toes are scrunched in the wrong direction.

Even if I did see this painting in a positive light, I still wouldn’t want it on my wall. If I held what I assume to be the traditional opinion, that wouldn’t make me appreciate the drab mix of olive and yellow that peppers the sage-green background or the strange abrupt cliff face or the obnoxious yellow or the imperfect geometry.

I can appreciate the work, the thought, the design, the execution. But I don’t enjoy it.

Overall, this painting makes me uncomfortable. So, if it isn’t taken by the end of this week, it’ll probably go under my bed. And maybe I’ll hang something happy in its place.

Thank you for reading. And have a great rest of week.

Here’s the painting, tell me what you think.