The dark side of The Kiss
In a series that highlights a momentous year in three cities, Dr James Fox explains why Vienna in 1908 foreshadowed the creative and destructive future of the 20th Century.
At the turn of the last century, Vienna was a gilded city of tradition and splendour, at the centre of the oldest empire in Europe. In 1908, to commemorate the emperor’s diamond jubilee, Vienna’s art world staged an exhibition that highlighted the optimistic spirit of the age.
The undoubted star of the show was Gustav Klimt, who revealed his most celebrated works – a series of glittering portraits of the city’s great beauties and his most famous work of all, The Kiss. Its incandescent beauty and romance capture the glittering myth of Vienna like no other.
And yet for Dr James Fox, The Kiss represents a much darker vision than many would imagine; for him, its ambiguous embrace foreshadows the impending collapse of the old world and the violent century of struggle to come.
“In this city, art and politics, dreams and nightmares, creation and destruction were locked in a fatal embrace”, Dr Fox explains.
This episode is part of Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities, which tells the story of three cities in three exceptional years – cities whose artists and thinkers, writers and musicians set the world on a new course.
Vienna 1908, episode 1 of Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities screens on Saturday 10 October on BBC World News.