Oil painting Art blog by Lucas Art

Klimt, Gustav  The kiss painting
The famous Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt takes the crown for most popular artwork in the world. His sensual creation, The Kiss, is the most popular oil painting on the planet according to sales statistics of the online art gallery

The Kiss is a fascinating icon of the loss of self that lovers experience. Only the faces and hands of this couple are visible; all the rest is great swirl of gold, studded with colored rectangles as if to express visually the emotional and physical explosion of erotic love.Just as Munch can be associated with both Symbolism and Expressionism, so the art of the Austrian painter, Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), is a curious and elegant synthesis of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. The Austrians responded enthusiastically to the decorative artifice of Art Nouveau, and Klimt is almost artifice incarnate. He painted large ornamental friezes of allegorical scenes, and produced fashionable portraits, uniting the stylized shapes and unnatural colors of Symbolism with his own essentially harmonious concept of beauty.

According to lucas’s statistics, Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss is the most popular oil painting on the planet. “Klimt has been the rising star of the Modern art world over the past few years, with paintings such as the Kiss and Adele Bloch-Bauer which in 2006, snatched the title of most expensive oil painting ever sold at auction, $135 Million.”

Vincent Van Gogh, might have relinquished his top spot to Klimt, but is still the most popular artist in the world with both Starry Night and Café Terrace snatching the second and third spots respectively. His total sales numbers have left everyone well behind.