Best Art Kisses Coming to You in TEN, Nine, Eight Quiz

Answer: Jean-Léon Gérôme

"Pygmalion and Galatea" (ca. 1890) is an oil on canvas (88.9 x 68.6 cm) by the French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. It was based on "Metamorphoses" from Ovid and shows the king and sculptor Pygmalion kissing the statue of Galatea (which he carved), at the moment that the goddess Aphrodite brings her to life. Between 1890 and 1892, Gérôme painted and sculpted several versions of the theme. In each version of the painting, the sculpture appears at a different angle. Since 1927, the most famous version has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) was born in France. His works have varied themes: historical paintings, Greek mythology, oriental themes, portraits, and other objects. He was one of the greatest representatives of the Academic period.

Answer: Bed

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was born in France and was an influential painter of the Post-Impressionist period. He became known for his works depicting scenes of Parisian life, not always very demure, at the end of the 19th century. In addition to his lively and vibrant depictions of the famous Parisian cabaret Moulin Rouge, to which he was a frequent visitor, Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed not-so-glamorous aspects of bars, cabarets, and brothels.

Toulouse-Lautrec made four paintings depicting two people in bed, often interpreted as lesbian couples. In the work "In Bed, The Kiss" ("Au lit, le Baiser"), 1892, one of these four paintings, Lautrec portrays two prostitutes kissing in bed. The work was executed in oil on cardboard, 70 x 54cm. In 2015, it was sold at a Sotheby's auction in London for £10,789,000.

Answer: Antonio Canova

"Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss" is a sculpture by the Italian painter, architect, and sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822), who by the 1800s was one of the most celebrated European artists, with patrons in many countries. This work is considered a masterpiece of Neoclassical sculpture.

"Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss" was inspired by the Latin novel "Metamorphoses" by Apuleius, sometimes referred to as "The Golden Ass". The sculpture dates from the period 1787-1793, is 1.5 meters tall, and was carved entirely in marble. There are two versions of this work. The first version is in the Louvre Museum, Paris since 1824 and the second one can be seen in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg.

Answer: The Lovers

The Belgian René-François-Ghislain Magritte (1898-1967), known as René Magritte, was one of the main surrealist painters, known for painting familiar or common objects in strange situations, generating mystery, fear, or even discomfort.

"The Lovers", in French "Les Amants" (1928), is an oil on canvas painting, 54 x 73cm, in which a couple appears kissing with fabric covering their faces; some say perhaps it represents difficulties and obstacles that happen in relationships between people. Magritte made a series of four variations of "The Lovers" and one of them can be found in the National Gallery of Australia.

Answer: True

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian painter and one of the members of the school known as the Vienna Secession, a group of painters who used a highly decorative style similar to Art Nouveau. He successfully painted numerous murals. In the early 1900s, Gustav Klimt entered in his "Golden Phase", which featured the intensive use of gold leaf, silver, and platinum, in a style reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics.

The most famous paintings of this period are the "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907) and "The Kiss" (1907-08). The latter was exhibited in 1908 under the title "Liebespaar" (The Lovers), in which a couple appears hugging, with their bodies wrapped in beautiful and colorful robes. "The Kiss" is now on display in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, and is considered Klimt's most popular work.

Answer: Marble

"The Kiss" (French: Le Baiser), by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), was originally titled "Francesca de Rimini", the name of an Italian noblewoman with a tragic history that was portrayed in Dante's Inferno (Circle 2, Canto 5) and initially it was part of the work "The Gates of Hell". When it was exhibited, it was very successful and for this reason it was separated from the rest of the set.

It is worth remembering that Rodin had the habit of making smaller versions of a sculpture, using various materials such as plaster, terracotta, and bronze before making the marble sculpture, with larger dimensions. In 1888, the French government commissioned the first large-scale marble version of "The Kiss" (181.5 x 112,5 x 117,0cm) to be displayed at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. In 1900, the sculpture went to the Musée du Luxembourg before being taken to the Musée Rodin in 1918.

Answer: Edvard Munch

"Kiss by the Window" (1892) was created by the Norwegian painter and printmaker Edvard Munch (1863-1944). The work is part of his series known as "Frieze of Life", which deals with life, love, and death, on which he spent almost 30 years of his life.

"Kiss by the Window" is an oil painting on canvas, 73 x 92cm, which shows a couple embraced in such a way that their faces merge into a featureless single shape as if while in loving people lose their identity. The frame has two environments; the illuminated exterior that can be seen through the window and the interior with the couple. The work can be seen at the National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design in Norway.

Answer: Times Square

"V-J Day in Times Square" is a famous photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt in which a jubilant sailor in a dark uniform appears kissing a young woman in white clothes on August 14, 1945, in Times Square, New York, where thousands of people were celebrating the end of the war. V-J Day means Victory over Japan Day, the day on which Japan surrendered in WWII, bringing the war to an end.

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist, hired by Life Magazine to document the event.

In 2012 it was revealed that George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman were the people in the photo. The photo received a specie of #metoo infamy after the woman revealed the kiss was not consensual.

Answer: True

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was a Belarussian-born French artist, who moved between many arts: painting, drawing, book illustration, stained glass, etc. It is said that he belongs to the first generation of European modernists.

In 1915 he married Bella Rosenfeld and from then on she appeared in several of his works. To celebrate Bella's birthday he created "The Birthday" or "Anniversary" (1915), where, to show the couple's happiness, they levitate in space while kissing. It is an oil on canvas (80.6 x 99.7cm) painting that can be seen in MOMA, NY.

Answer: True

In October 1979, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, met in Berlin with Erich Honecker, who was leading East Germany, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic, a communist nation. French journalist Régis Bossu, who was in Berlin to cover the leaders' meeting, captured the exact moment when the two leaders kissed on the mouth. His photo became famous and inspired the Russian artist, based in Germany, Dmitri Wrubel.

In 1990, based on a photo by Régis Bossu, Wrubel made a graffiti painting on the eastern side Berlin Wall, which was named "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love", 365 x 480cm, sometimes called "Fraternal Kiss". In 2009, due to vandalism and weather conditions, the existing works on the remaining part of the Berlin Wall were erased and the original artists were invited to redo them with more durable paints. Wrubel redid his work. It is worth remembering that Brezhnev and Honecker, who appear in the work, were not homosexuals and that the kiss was an osculum, widely used in the Orthodox Church, as a symbol of camaraderie.