‘The Kiss’ In Syria: Artist Tammam Azzam Goes Viral With His Take On Gustav Klimt’s Artwork – By Katherine Brooks
Syrian artist Tammam Azzam took the twittersphere by storm last week when he posted an image of Gustav Klimt’s « The Kiss » superimposed on the facade of a bullet-ridden building in Damascus. The photoshopped image — which some mistook for an actual street-side mural — brought the eye of the art world to the artist’s war-torn home country.
Describing the motivations behind his digital artwork, Azzam said in a statement:
« I want to discuss how the whole world could be interested in art and on the other hand two hundred people are killed every day in Syria. Goya created a work to immortalize [the] killing of hundreds of innocent Spanish citizens on May 3, 1808. How many May 3rds do we have in Syria today? »
The unique combination of viral artwork and political protest prompted Jonathan Jones at The Guardian to write, « The painting whose golden ghost he has made to materialise on a ruinous facade is a passionate plea for universal love. »
Scroll down for a slideshow of Azzam’s other political works from recent series titled « Syrian Museum » that similarly combines Western motifs with images of contemporary Syrian war zones.
