4. The Kiss

Oscar Han created an initial version of this work around 1924, which he presented to the public at the Romanian Art exhibition in the same year. In 1926, "The Kiss" was presented to the public again, during the Official Salon. The sculpture reveals itself as a tribute to the primal couple, through a robust modeling, in broad planes. The pure, unaltered feeling, specific to a cycle dedicated to man and beyond that - to love, presents Oscar Han as an exceptional creator; a creator who deciphers the mysteries of love in a platonic sense, maintaining his status of objective narrator. His "Kiss," as Felix Aderca noted, "is constructed of two triangles with joint heights and abolished hypotenuses. The glued heights - the spiritualized bodies - are the "kiss" elevated to the emotion of a metaphysical gesture." The grace and vigor of the body reveal, in the case of the heroine, a modeling much smoother than the energetic shaping that highlights the musculature of the male physique (although, in some variants, we also discern an emphasis on the musculature in the case of the heroine). We notice an imbalance of the power relationship illustrated by the statures of the two protagonists, an imbalance whose climax is marked by a primary behavioral mark, reminiscently patriarchal; an almost aggressive gesture, yet concluded with certain hesitations. The artist captures the moment of maximum tension, therefore - the fulfillment of desire, a volatile desire, which transpires from the intellectual plane to the physical one, in the fusion of bodies that now form the sculptural ensemble full of symbols. A gesture, as Marin Mihalache remarks, "delicate, but persistent, through the unrestricted freedom of a natural inclination of the senses, in a frank, healthy sensuality, emphasized also by the potentiation of curvatures". Oscar Han's work undoubtedly falls within the series of the famous "kisses" in universal art, long loved and appreciated by the general public. But on a national level, Constantin Brâncuși's "The Kiss" deserves mention - the first in his cycle of kisses, the first modern sculpture of the 20th century. Thus, this work represents a long meditation by the artist and represents both an independent allegory, and one of the allegories intended to form the basis of the moment dedicated by Oscar Han to Mihai Eminescu. Variations of the work are found in collections of museums such as: The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, The "K.H. Zambaccian" Museum, Bucharest, The "Dinu and Sevasta Vintilă" Art Museum, Topalu, The Art Museum, Constanța.

Dimensions

depth 14 cm, width 17.5 cm, height 20 cm

Description

bronze, signed and dated on the side, "O. Han, 1923"

Research information

Variants of the work can be found in the collections of museums such as: The National Museum of Art of Romania, Bucharest, the "K.H. Zambaccian" Museum, Bucharest, the "Dinu and Sevasta Vintilă" Art Museum, Topalu, Art Museum Constanța. A variant of the work is reproduced in the monograph "Oscar Han", Marin Mihalache, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1985, on page 32. A variant of the work is reproduced in the monograph “Oscar Han. An artist and his time”, Doina Păuleanu, Official Monitor, Bucharest, 2020, page 88.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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