Painting of the Week - The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907/8

Kunsthistorisches, Vienna
(Source)

This painting was chosen by Spuey who named it as one of his favourite paintings. Seen from above, The Kiss features a couple embracing on a field of flowers (seen in the bottom left) but it all dissolves into geometric shapes and the gold background. The general lack of anything to give context to where they are in space and time conveys to the viewer that there is nothing beyond the expression of love between the two figures. The feeling of intimacy also generated by the interlocked hands, and the rounded lines of the woman and ecstatic expression on her face.

Probably Klimt's most famous painting, The Kiss is an example of the Art Nouveau/Arts and Crafts movements.