The Multidimensionality of Modern Artwork Compared in 'Klimt', 'Warhol', and 'Lewis'
The Kiss by Gustaf Klimt can be, through certain aspects, compared with Norman Lewis’s City Night, and Andy Warhol’s Gold Marilyn. They are not technically from the same year or even decades, nor are they necessarily obvious parallels, but they are all exceptional pieces which overlap in form, colour, space, and shape, and how they affected the art world.
Societally, The Kiss challenged many who looked upon it; many critics called it borderline pornographic despite the obvious clothing the couple wears. It explores intimacy, but not just physical intimacy, which I think is what has been overlooked. The man is kissing her cheek, and looking at this image from 2022, I would rate this image as straight-up PG, but the fact that it was critiqued so harshly in a sexual way is very telling from a cultural aspect as well. No, to me, The Kiss is not about physical intimacy at all. It’s about soul-level connection between two people who understand each other and see each other as equals. She is being cherished and accepting it.
To scorn this image… well, I’m not sure what to make of it to be quite honest. What possible complaint could one have about showcasing healthy love? If anything, the shunning of worthy examples of love leaves a lot of room for the toxicity that has become so rampant nowadays where people wouldn’t know love if he opened her door or if she made him a meal made with love. Bodies want pleasure, minds want stimulation, and souls require connection. All three points are required, and I think the prudish reaction to this piece is a testament to the fact that love be concealed behind closed doors. Love should not be hidden. Love should be celebrated. I’m not saying we should, as a society, condone public orgies as in the Bacchanalia or other such nonsense, but that “PDA” not be such a taboo. It’s a kiss. Get over yourselves (she says as though those that bitched are actually reading this.)
From City Night, there is an abstract impression that is similar to The Kiss, even if the dark tones of green and brown slashed through with light from the former are at such odds with the overwhelming yellow of the latter. The subject matter and palette are dissimilar, but the construction has overlapping in a strange way – particularly in the greenery by the woman’s feet. There’s something about the way each artist employs abstract shapes to create form that has something in common. In The Kiss, it’s predominantly circles and rectangles, and with City Night, it’s almost exclusively triangular impressions created through streaky, slashing lines, but I see as many similarities as I do contrasts.
To my eyes, City Night is a dark version of The Kiss, showcasing a night sky filled with rain and fragmented light in the distance. I can almost imagine a scene where a scorned lover tries to navigate the rainy streets of New York through tears. It creates texture in the same fashion as The Kiss with the use of rectangles and varying colours to create motion and depth. I think City Night is where we are right now with hook-up culture being the norm since there is no trust, truth, or stability in such an arrangement, and the pursuit of pleasure necessarily ends in overindulgence - which leads, every time, to pain.
As for Gold Marilyn, again, it’s not similar in a topical sense, but in the method of vibrant colours, saturation, and exaggeration. The use of gold in both is an obvious similarity, but also the artist’s decision to take creative liberties in using societal expectation to create something new. While Warhol used colours that are indicative of the luxurious bubble gum expectations of Hollywood to reinvent Marilyn, Klimt was very intrigued by Byzantine patterns and colours. Both artists applied cultural appearances to their subjects to create a new atmosphere, and I would say both are actually atmospheric despite the fact that the main subject are people, not places.
In conclusion, these were very inventive pieces of influential artwork that had various facets of methodology and many aspects that could be interpreted. They are similar artworks that have many moving pieces within it in a technical sense, and all blur the lines of genre through the use of subject, colour, technique, and cultural applications. They speak to the times they come from, offering commentary on desires and taboos, as well as fears and dreams.
*From a weekly discussion in "The Modern Museum of Art's” course on Modern Art.