The art of love
It’s that time of the year when love is in the air. Red roses sell like hotcakes, romantic images with proclamations of love clog the Internet and secret rendezvous lurks around every corner. Promises are made, candles are lit over wine and the world seems like the sweetest dream you’ve ever had. It’s Valentine’s Day, of course!
Love, one of the most powerful emotions that has kept the human race alive through every catastrophe, has always found its way into art. No artist could resist the temptation that love offered to weave its magic into canvases and stone. Here’s a look at some of the most evocative works of art in history.
1. SHAKUNTALA by Raja Ravi Varma
A painting that most of us in India are familiar with, sometimes hanging on walls as calendars in many of our homes, ‘Shakuntala’ by India’s celebrated artist, Raja Ravi Varma oozes with love and longing. Pretending to remove a thorn from her foot, she yearningly looks out for her husband, Dushyantha. The gaze says more than words ever can.
2. UNTITLED (WATERING FLOWERS) by Wang Xingwei
Wang Xingwei is considered one of China’s most important contemporary artists today and his painting titled ‘Untitled (Watering Flowers)’ of a man whose head takes the form of a watering can while that of the woman is shaped like a blossoming plant in a pot, is a reminder to all of us that any relationship needs to be nurtured, and helping each other is the core of any bond.
3. THE KISS by Gustav Klimt
What is love without a kiss? Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s oil painting, ‘The Kiss’, painted in 1908, showing a couple in deep embrace enveloped in dazzling splendour with added gold leaf, silver and platinum, was created at a very critical phase in Klimt’s career. He had just completed his ceiling paintings for the University of Vienna which were considered pornographic due to the inclusion of nude figures. Perhaps ‘The Kiss’ was an attempt at softening the blow of all the criticism he was facing then. The painting is considered to be an image of the artist himself with his partner, Emilie, who in spite of Klimt’s wayward ways, remained his companion till the very end. A truly iconic painting that stands as a symbol of tenderness and passion till this very day.
4. THE LOVERS by René Magritte
Another kiss but strangely, with the barrier of fabric is ‘The Lovers’ by Belgian artist René Magritte from 1928. The artist was famous for wrapping his subject’s face with cloth, lending a certain mystery to the image. The presence of the enshrouding veil could mean that it is possible to experience love without the sense of touch or sight — a blind and discreet form of love!
5. GENDERLESS LOVE
Love knows no gender boundaries. The ancient mural of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum from 2400 BC is proof that it has always been so. The two were ancient Egyptian royal servants, and the mural shows the pair holding hands. Though the exact nature of their relationship is not known, the murals show them in a pose usually reserved for a married couple. It has been argued that this may be the oldest gay couple ever documented.
The topic is still being explored in art with Indian-Canadian artist, Sunil Gupta, recently exhibiting his powerful body of photographs that revealed gay encounters in culturally oppressive atmospheres that belittle homosexual love.
6. THE BIRTHDAY by Marc Chagall
‘The Birthday’ was painted by the Russian-French artist, Marc Chagall in 1915, as an ode to the love of his life — his wife, Bella. Meeting as teenagers, they got married in 1915, in spite of stiff opposition from her parents. Chagall painted this a few weeks before his marriage, and lends a dream-like feel to it by picturing himself as floating above Bella, while she also seems to be ready to fly away, bouquet in hand — a scene of eternal bliss. There is love dripping like wet paint in this painting.
7. HUES OF LOVE
Love cannot be confined to compartments of desire and passion. Art history is replete with artworks that show the vast expanse of emotion — from sibling love to parental love and the warmth of friendships too. Vincent Van Gogh’s portrait of his brother Theo Van Gogh, who he considered the anchor of his life, is an archetype of sibling bonding. It was Theo’s financial and emotional support that allowed Vincent to focus on his practice of art. The two brothers remain united in death, with their final resting places next to each other. Who we love notwithstanding, self-love is important too. Many artists have captured this shade of love in art; Amrita Sher-Gil’s ‘Self Portrait’ from 1933 being a fine example. Looking out of the canvas with an enigmatic smile and twinkling eyes, the artist seems to remind us all — that loving oneself is self-empowering.
8. FRIDA KAHLO AND DIEGO RIVERA
Then there are those artist couples whose love and art are so entwined that their artworks are almost a documentation of their love stories. Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera did portraits of each other for 25 years through all their messy fights and heartbreaks, giving us an insight into their often troubled relationship. Yet, they kept coming back to each other, drawn by the power of a deep love, until Frida’s death in 1954. “ It is not love, or tenderness or affection, it’s life itself”, Frida once remarked of her feelings for Diego.
9. THE PASSING OF SHAH JAHAN by Abanindranath Tagore
Perhaps one of the most poignant works of art that tugs at all our hearts with its sensitive portrayal of love is ‘The Passing of Shah Jahan’ by Abanindranath Tagore from 1902. In the painting, a weak and powerless Shah Jahan, imprisoned by his own son, Aurangazeb, rests on a bed in his final moments, longingly gazing at the Taj Mahal that he had built for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. All the accompaniments of love — loss, yearning and separation flow like poetry in this soul-stirring painting.
Throughout history, artists have always attempted to spread the message of love through their art. Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Love is Calling’ and Banksy’s ‘Love is in the air’, showing a masked militant hurling a bouquet of flowers are powerful messages about the need for love to replace all the hate being hurled around. Love, in its purest form, is divine. It is only when man-made divisions and cultural conditioning corrupts this emotion that absurd wars break out over love. On its own, love can only heal and brighten our worlds and art is testimony to that!
10. MARINA ABRAMOVIC AND ULAY
Two performance artists, Marina Abramovic and Ulay, who began their careers in 1976, madly in love with each other, living in a van and passionately turning their love into a performance are remembered not just for their body of works created together but also for their final performance as an ending to their 12-year relationship. Titled ‘The Lovers’, the couple started walking from opposite ends of The Great Wall of China and met midway after three months of trekking to say their goodbyes to each other. After 20 years of no communication that followed, Ulay suddenly showed up at one of Abramovic’s performances, and what followed was an incredibly moving moment with both of them blinking away tears. While Ulay died in 2020, Abramovic still exhibits and performs. Sometimes it is only in retrospect that the nuances of love are truly understood.