gallery 2
in the public domain

 

01 a film poster by an anonymous artist for the 1927 Paramount film A Kiss in a Taxi

02 advert for Whitman's Chocolates 1953

03 advert for interior design firm featuring the celebrated Kick Back (more anon)

04 From an illustrated edition of Bonaventura's Meditationes , Florence c1495. The Judas Kiss

05`The Embrace, an engraving of 1503 by the Master MZ, 11 x 15cms.

singles

Anthony Raine Barker, Hidden Gold (rabbits)
Les Adieux, engraving French 1789
Remington Razors, Kiss with Back Lift 1945
Lindbergh gets a French kiss
Coby Whitmore, kisses and near kisses
a Kiss at the Keyboard (Moreau Le Jeune)
Master MZ, The Embrace 1503
Debucourt, The Two Kisses 1786
A Master kissing a pupil!! Holiday Annual 1922


The purpose of this session is to offer a range of pictorial possibilities.

Do you feel drawn to the reportage elements, to the manipulation of the image etc. ?

Above all we'll be looking at

the conventions of the kiss,

the positioning of the bodies,

the point of view of the spectator, the context of the embrace,

the implications of Before and After,

the symbolism of bodily fusion,

the codes of behaviour.


1. recommended films


evading censorship in Hitchcock's Notorious (1946).


the spinning kiss in Hitchcock's Vertigo ( 1958) compared to the equivalent in De Palma's Body Double (1984).


the physical absorbtion in Svankmajer's Dimensions of Dialogue (1984).


the surrogate kiss in Minelli's Meet me in St Louis (1944)


the detective's kiss in Dead Men don't wear Plaid (1982)


the animated kiss in Tex Avery's cartoons.


the kiss as culmination in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975)


2. The Kiss in advertising .


Selections from the following American advertisements from the Fifties were shown

1 Artcarved Diamond and Wedding Rings November 1951

2 Chesterfield Cigarettes They satisfy, August 1960.

3 US Savings Bonds Help us keep the things worth keeping, July 1958

4 Remington Electric Shavers , Some Guys and Gals have all the Luck, Dec 45

5 Van Heusen Shirts , its daring, its audacious, March 1949

6 Botany Robes for Men , Warmth without weight, Dec 1946

7 Marlboro shirts , What a Man, Dec 1953

8 Barbasol , shave with Barbasol, May 1949.

9 Lane Cedar Hope Chest , This Christmas thrill her, Nov.49.

10 Botany Robes , It's a Gift, Dec 1947.

11 ad for Valentino , Feb 1951


12 ad for Easy Living , Love's Not Like Football Baby, Sept 1949


13 ad for That touch of Mink , June 1962


14 ad for Its a Wonderful Life , December 1946


15 ad for Golden Earrings , Oct 1947


16 ad for September Affair , February 1954


17 ad for Homecoming, June 1948

 



 For further examples of the Woman's Leg Lift

see

NEW LIFT 1961

SOME GUYS HAVE ALL THE LUCK 1945

 

 



3 Texts; two poems on the act of the kiss. A comparative exercise

The Expiration John Donne


So,so breake off this late lamenting kiss,
Which suckes two soules, and vapors both away,
Turn thou ghost that way, and let mee turne this,
And let our selves benight our hapapiest day,
And we ask'd none leave to love; nor will we owe
Any, so cheape a death, as saying, Goe;
Goe; and if that word have not quite kill'd thee,
Ease mee with death, by bidding me goe too.
Oh if it have , let my word work on mee,
And a just office on a murderer doe.
Being double dead, going, and bidding, goe.
 


Kisses loathsome.
Robert Herrick.


I abhor the slimie kiss,
(Which to me most loathsome is.)
Those lips please me which are plac't
Close, but not too strictly lac't:
Yeilding I wo'd have them ; yet
Not a wimbling Tongue admit:
What sho'd poking sticks make there,
When the ruffe is set elsewhere.


Wimbling=boring a hole.
Poking sticks = for stiffening ruffs.