Art History's Standout Smooches

When was the last time you got to experience a truly earth shattering, back-arching, footpopping, spine-tingling kiss; the kind that makes you forget where you are, what day it is, and even your own name? To help you relive the thrill of that one smooch that still makes your knees tingle when you think of it, we’ve put together a shortlist of art’s most outstanding renditions of the time-honored tradition of locking lips. And, better yet, we married those kisses with the unique creations of artist and jewelry designer, Solange Azagury-Partridge, to make our hearts beat even faster.

Writer KATYA LOPATKO

Kiss

Sculptor Erwin Wurm’s work brings lightness and fun into the gravity of modern life, a mission that is perhaps most plain to see in his sculpture of two amorous sausages. By using inanimate objects to communicate his message, Wurm surprises and delights, making us pause, look again, and hopefully contemplate the deeper meaning behind his work. The work is open to infinite interpretations, but one might be: give people a chance, and don’t shy away from a love that strikes you as a little weird or unconventional at first glance.

Stolen Kiss

Isn’t forbidden love the sweetest kind? In Fragonard’s characteristic French rococo painting, a young couple is caught in an illicit embrace, their stolen moment captured in all its haste and secrecy. The lustre and movement of the fabric, the sumptuous palette, and the soft brushstrokes all elevate this work to masterpiece status. However, we like it best for the little details that bring back the thrill of kissing someone – preferably someone you shouldn’t be kissing – as a young, stupid teen caught between lust, love, and sheer confusion. Riding the peaks and valleys of the emotional rollercoaster of a crush will never make your heart stop quite so dramatically as it did the first time, and Fragonard manages to communicate that sense of urgency in a frozen scene. Yet the girl’s gaze is distant and imprecise, leaving us wondering what might be going through her head as she steals away from the ladies of the drawing room. Is this hasty little rendezvous the opening scene of a lifelong passion, or – like a daylily – will it fade mere hours after it blooms? We’ll never know the answer, but Fragonard keeps us wondering more than two centuries later.

Le Baiser

This photo by surrealist giant, Man Ray, is a captivating image in its own right, but it’s the backstory that raises it into the ranks of the most memorable kisses in art history. When Lee Miller – the woman in the image – came to Paris in 1929 to study photography under Man Ray, she soon became not only his student but also his model, closest collaborator, lover, and muse. Though she was a talented photographer in her own right, much of her work was attributed to the Man in her life, which caused a great deal of strife between them. Could this be the reason for her haunted gaze – that she is spellbound by a premonition of the lovers’ bittersweet destiny? After more than three years together, the bonds holding Man Ray and Lee Miller together finally snapped under the pressure of Ray’s controlling behavior, and Miller took off for New York to open her own studio and live her own life. Although they didn’t exactly part on good terms, the two continued to love each other until the end of their days – proof that love has a will of its own, our best intentions be damned.

The Kiss

The iconic Modernist sculptor Brâncuși might be best known for his clean, pared-down designs of abstract forms, but The Kiss proves that even the most serious artists know how to have a little fun from time to time. Arms wrapped tightly around each other, faces smooshed together in an embrace that’s equal parts poignant and silly, these lovers quite literally gaze into each other’s… erm, eyeballs. Look again and you’ll see that the perfect symmetry of their faces creates the impression of a single being, fused from two complementary halves – bringing to mind the highest ideal of romantic love: the total union of two bodies and souls.

Rise and Monty Kissing

In the 1970s and 80s, Nan Goldin became a legend of the underground and a pioneer of the diaristic style of photography. She spent decades recording hundreds of intimate, candid moments within her circle of friends, and she did so out of pure love for her subjects and an urge to capture their lives as they were. Passion practically oozes from this snapshot of two lovers, but there is also something else – a sense of urgency, of time passing, of the fleeting nature of life. In 1980s New York, AIDS was ravaging Goldin’s inner circle, claiming the lives of many of her closest friends (to say nothing of those who whose lives were ruined by drugs and alcohol). This image serves as a poignant reminder of the strength and urgency of love and lust – especially the taboo kind – but also that the brightest stars burn out the fastest.

Kiss V

This comic book-inspired painting by pop artist, Roy Lichtenstein, might seem straightforward and even kitschy at first glance, but dig a little deeper and all sense of certainty begins to dissolve. A man and a woman, the archetypes of mid-century masculinity and femininity, cling to each other in a desperate embrace, but the only other clue we have about the inner feelings of the subjects are the tears dripping from the woman’s eyes. Are we witnessing a scene of relief, of fear, of sorrow, of joy? Is their love bringing the couple closer together, or tearing them apart? One thing is clear: the two feel strongly about each other. Kiss V brings to mind the cliché that the opposite of love is indifference, by showing how passionate emotions can bleed into each other so smoothly that, sometimes, it can be hard to tell where love ends and more sinister feelings begin to creep in. Lichtenstein also visually evokes the trope of the woman-in-love as a martyr, sacrificing herself endlessly for the one that she loves. Ladies, do as Kiss V says, not as it does. And always remember: if it’s good, it should feel good.

Pete and the Wolfman

Elizabeth Peyton gained art world recognition by daring to make sensuous images of the people she loved, and at a time when the reigning truth dictated that figuration was dead. From her beloved Napoleon to Kurt Cobain, Peyton’s subjects were usually young men – artists, rock stars, and others – who tickled her fancy with their personalities, not just their looks (though these tended to be “pale, thin, and romantically decadent”). Here, the artist reinterprets a tabloid photo of the Libertines’ Pete Doherty, locked in a fraternal kiss with Peter Wolfe, a close collaborator and one of his best mates. In a world of postmodernism and chaos, there’s something refreshingly sweet, and maybe even revolutionary, about creating art about affection, pure and simple. “I really love the people I paint,” Peyton said. “I’m happy they’re in the world.” If we could all carry a little bit of that spirit with us, maybe love wouldn’t be so hard to come by.

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