The feeling of missing makes us rediscover the value of the things we no longer paid attention to: a handshake, dinner with friends, the tenderness of a kiss… In the hope of slowly returning to normal, so that we do not forget this new consciousness, we decided to dedicate a little space in our magazine to the most beautiful kisses in the history of art. We chose the most contemporary, because the loneliness and the sense of alienation that we have experienced in these long months are closer to the fragility of modern feeling rather than the solemn beauty of ancient art.
The artist who, more than anyone else described this year’s loneliness, was perhaps Edward Hopper. Among his famous paintings there are no kisses, but the men and women at the counter of a diner from the famous Nighthawks of 1942, or those painted in the Room in Room in New York, resemble and remind us of the silence of these months. Alone, at the café, turning the teaspoon in their cup of coffee, with their head down. Alone, unable to communicate with each other, in a venue open in the middle of the night, as if they were separated by an invisible acrylic barrier. So close and yet so far away. Like the loneliness of looking at the world from the window of your own home in the morning sun. Alone, at home, sitting on the bed watching the morning sun come in through the window, staring into the void.
Like Magritte’s lovers, wrapped in a thin white fabric, caught in the act of kissing but destined to never touch. But we also want to celebrate the joy of being in love and kissing. Maybe then in Kiss V by Roy Lichtenstein – a pop masterpiece whose enhanced texture of the protagonists’ faces remind our Ray Bag Tuscany Red – her tears of joy for having finally found her great love.
There are no shadows in Marc Chagall marvelous painting, The birthday. The artist managed to include the lightness of love in the canvas. Of his love, because the protagonists of the painting are him and his wife Bella. In 1915, when he painted the artwork, Chagall had just arrived from Paris, where during his long stay, he met the Fauves, in particular Matisse, who taught him to use colors to convey emotions. Now he is back to his home in Vitebsk, in Belarus, and he is happy. He can finally hug, kiss and marry his Bella, achieving their great love: representing the lightheartedness, the lightness, the feeling of invincibility that causes the love.
It is this kind of feeling that we need to believe exists: one that speaks of rebirth and new life, as in The kiss by Constantin Brancusi, inspired by the renowned kiss, that of Auguste Rodin. For Brancusi, the kiss is the intimate union of two souls that become a single indestructible block, ready to generate new life.
Since love in Covid’s time is no gender, we can only conclude with Banksy’s Kissing copper, with his disruptive romanticism. In 2004 in Brighton, a graffiti of two policemen kissing appeared on a wall. The acclaimed and mysterious writer denounces homophobia and ridicules authority with this simple but effective image.
Irevedì celebrates love as a pure, timeless, genderless, and without barrier feeling.
Irevedì is love, passion, is life, is art.
