The Kiss III 1902

Curator: Here we have Edvard Munch’s The Kiss III. This print, dimensions roughly 41 by 46 centimeters, resides here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: My immediate reaction is how raw and intimate this feels. The wood grain becomes almost like a metaphor for the texture of human connection. Curator: Indeed. The woodcut medium is crucial; its crude lines and textures speak to the rawness of human emotion. The simplification of form into near abstraction is also notable. Editor: I get that, but it's also the blending together that strikes me—the couple becoming a single, unified shape. Are they losing themselves, or finding themselves? Curator: A pertinent question. Munch often explored themes of anxiety and psychological turmoil within relationships. The image could be read through that lens, certainly. Editor: For me, it's that tension, beautifully expressed. The dissolving boundaries... haunting and beautiful. Curator: It’s a powerful encapsulation of the complexities inherent in intimate human relationships.