Edvard Munch
Kiss by the Window, 1892, oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm, The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.
Munch’s art offers some of the world’s most effective images of emotional states — a veritable international sign language of the soul. The raw blue tones of Kiss by the Window are full of sensible eroticism. The only illumination is from windows across the way. The couple has retreated behind the curtain and Munch has cropped off much of their bodies. His brushstrokes merge their bodies. Only a small section of the woman’s neck is even visible, she is overwhelmed, almost consumed, by her lover’s embrace. Did Munch mean for us to feel like voyeurs watching this private, intense moment?
