Artwork Information

The gorgeous silver-leaf surface of The Kiss reflects light but also seems to soak it in. Like a gilded icon it has a strong physical presence. Max Gimblett says this mirror surface is ‘about including the viewer in the painting’. Gimblett began experimenting with metallic pigments in 1982; the alchemy of silver and gold marking what he terms his ‘mid-life transformation’. Like Constantin Brâncusi’s 1916 sculpture of the same name, or the circular form of a Buddhist mandala, The Kiss is a sign of wholeness or ideal union.