Klimt & The Kiss

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Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss from 1908 is one of the most reproduced works of art in the world. Taking this phenomenon as its starting point, this second film in our ‘Exhibition on Screen’ series traces concentric circles around the iconic painting to reveal the artistry and enigma behind its apparent simplicity. How did the second-eldest son of a poor family of nine in the Viennese suburbs become the best-paid portrait painter of the Habsburg upper class and decorator of the magnificent buildings on the new Ringstrasse, and how did the highly talented naturalist and drawer of meticulous body studies become the most famous representative of Viennese Art Nouveau in the space of a few years? The film uses striking juxtapositions to show how Klimt effortlessly adopted the techniques of contemporary greats from Toulouse Lautrec to van Gogh or Monet, and it does not shy away from the more questionable aspects of his work and personality: Klimt's gruff lonerism, which his mother and sisters served, the systematically enigmatic relationship with fashion designer Emilie Flöge, the numerous parallel love affairs with clients and destitute models, and finally the eternal question of Klimt's penchant for shimmering gold decoration and thus the boundary between art and kitsch. The film refrains from judging these facts, but with each return to The Kiss new questions arise: Why the abyss at the feet of the couple, why the clamp-like grip of his tanned hands around her alabaster neck? Does this look like a symbol of love, intimacy or appropriation? Instead of simple theses, ambiguity prevails. In a film about art, nothing better could happen.