top of page

An Eye-opening Kiss

Writer's picture: Linda MarieLinda Marie

Updated: May 8, 2019

I do not consider myself an "artsy" person in the same sense that I don't consider myself a "music" person. This does not mean that I do not enjoy art, but rather, that art is not a topic I study or pursue. Paris, Vienna, every city I suspect, offers cultural experiences to those who will make the effort. It is an effort I do not often make. Museums and galleries never seem to make the final cut when I travel.


I retired and moved to Europe to experience things I never experienced before, not only because I didn't have the time, but also because I didn't have the inclination. I heard recently that if one changes the way one looks at things, the things that one looks at will change. Maybe that is a line from James and the Giant Peach? I do not know. But I digress. What happened is that I found myself in Vienna, and I also found that I had taken an interest in an artist, Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss"

I realize that this it completely inconsistent with my opening qualification that I am not an artsy person. I admit that this is a new experience for me. I became interested in Klimt when Ron and I got married. Our friends Pamela and Steve hosted a reception for us in NC, and the invitations were decorated with Klimt's "The Kiss". I had never heard of Klimt. I was smitten. Our friends selected the invitations because they knew we were going to be in Austria on our honeymoon. Klimt is Austrian. And so the story begins.


There was a museum devoted to Klimt in Vienna. We didn't visit it. There was another museum, The Secession, that Klimt and a few others started in 1900. I was fascinated by the story of this "other" museum, and it was here that I lost myself for a few hours. The museum was started as a protest to traditional, classical art, a middle-finger salute to the conservative Kunstlerhaus who at the time was serving as the gatekeeper in defining "art". The motto of The Secession is simple: To the age its art. To art its freedom.

The Oxford dictionary defines art as "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." Ah, that is it. Primarily for their beauty or emotional power. This is perhaps why art has always seemed beyond my grasp, the idea that anything could have value without possessing utility. Beauty for beauty's sake. Now that is worthwhile.

25 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentarios


Post: Blog2_Post
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Facebook

©2019 by A Winter in Paris. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page