‘Kissing, like painting, never dies – but the perfect kiss, like a perfect painting, is almost impossible,’ says Francesco Bonami, curator of Luxembourg & Dayan’s new exhibition on the art of kissing in the 20th century, ‘Kiss Off’.
The title refers back to a print made by Canadian feminist artist Joyce Wieland at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in 1970, who pressed her lipsticked lips against the lithographic plate while singing the Canadian National Anthem. Just a year later at the College, and Vito Acconci made a remarkably similar work titled Kiss Off – an edition of prints produced by applying lipstick and kissing his own body, then rubbing his skin on a lithography stone.
The tension between these two works – similar in approach, divergent in purpose – is at the centre of Bonami’s ‘Kiss Off’ exhibition in New York. ‘We started with this idea of a solipsistic gesture by Acconci – and from there we went into exploring just barely the surface of this archetypal action performed by humankind who knows since when.’
O Canada, 1970, by Joyce Wieland, lithograph.
‘Kiss Off’ explores different kinds of kissing, as immortalised by some of the world’s greatest artists, from the salacious (Jeff Koons) to the sultry (Andy Warhol’s 1963 film of couples kissing for three and a half minutes) to the sapphic (Lynda Benglis’ video Female Sensibility) and the surreal (Picasso). A kiss, of course, is not only a romantic gesture. The easy visual link between the works makes viewing fun, but is there another side to this intimate act?
‘I think a kiss with all its implication is a very serious if joyful thing,’ says Bonami. ‘So the show is more about joy, pleasure, passion and survival than about fun.’ Reminders of this come via Ulay and Marina Abramović’s 1977 performance Breathing In/Breathing Out, in which the couple appear, lips locked and nostrils blocked, until they eventually pass out, 19 minutes later.
Having researched the subject of smooching so extensively, what for Bonami captures the perfect kiss? ‘Brâncuși’s sculpture of the kiss which expresses the best how a kiss can transform two people into one person,’ Bonami suggests, while in painting ‘clearly Klimt for the same reason: two forms become one through the act of kissing’. But the ultimate union of the oral senses, according to Bonami, perhaps comes in the form of a certain Italian confectionery. ‘If we talk about food, the best kiss is Perugina’s: two people kissing turned into a delicious piece of chocolate.’
Installation view of ‘Kiss Off’ at Luxembourg & Dayan. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan, New York
Kiss Off, 1971, by Vito Acconci, lithograph. New York. Courtesy of Anna Leonowens Gallery NSCAD University Permanent Art Collection
Installation view of ‘Kiss Off’ at Luxembourg & Dayan. Courtesy of Luxembourg & Dayan, New York
INFORMATION
‘Kiss Off’ is on view until 14 April. For more information, visit the Luxembourg & Dayan website (opens in new tab)
ADDRESS
Luxembourg & Dayan
64 E 77th Street
New York
VIEW GOOGLE MAPS (opens in new tab)
-
S94 Design makes the most of its uptown location to blur the lines of art and designS94 Design brings displays from Kwangho Lee, Donald Judd, Max Lamb and more to its Rafael Viñoly-designed location
-
Oasi Cashmere is taking Zegna back to its roots in the Italian Alps
Oasi Cashmere – an environmentally-conscious, all-embracing cashmere collection – is inspired by the Oasi Zegna nature park in the lush Biella Alps
-
Lynda Benglis’ seductive hall of mirrors and juicy neon eggs in London
American artist Lynda Benglis subverts expectations with new bronze sculptures and otherworldly coloured eggs in a new solo show at Thomas Dane Gallery, London
-
Wangechi Mutu’s fantastical creatures take over the New Museum
Wangechi Mutu’s ‘Intertwined' at the New Museum, NYC, until 4 June 2023, is a major survey spanning the full breadth of the Kenyan-born American artist’s work
-
New York art exhibitions: what to see in 2023
Stay up-to-date with our ongoing guide to the best New York art exhibitions 2023 for your diary
-
Heaven on Earth: architect Toshiko Mori curates Candida Höfer’s sublime new photography show
At Sean Kelly, New York, architect Toshiko Mori is curating a new show by Candida Höfer, spanning a 30-year period of the German photographer’s spatially sublime work
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for March 2023
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions, and those around the UK in March 2023, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
-
‘The Yanomami Struggle’: piercing New York show sheds light on an Amazonian community under critical threat
Now on view at The Shed in New York, ‘The Yanomami Struggle’ is a poignant exhibition dedicated to the friendship between artist and activist Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami people, and their collective fight against invasion
-
Stephen Shore book ‘Topographies’ sees the photographer take his eye to the USA’s skies
Stephen Shore book ‘Topographies: Aerial Surveys of the American Landscape’ offers a fresh photographic view of the USA’s vast and varied idiosyncrasies
-
Pictures from Home: photographer Larry Sultan’s domestic drama arrives on Broadway
Winner of ‘Best Adaptation’ in the 2023 Wallpaper* Design Awards, Pictures from Home at Studio 54 brings the memoir of American photographer Larry Sultan to Broadway, starring Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein and Zoë Wanamaker
-
Buckhorn Sculpture Park: inside the art paradise dreamt up by collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin
As legendary art collectors Sherry and Joel Mallin prepare to sell their upstate New York home – and the star-studded collection occupying Buckhorn, its onsite sculpture park – we go behind the scenes of this art treasure trove, and the extraordinary life, work and spirit of the Mallins
