Comparing the Sculptures The Kiss and Love - Essay Example

Indiana’s sculpture is placed in the open space, whereas Rodin’s sculpture is displayed in the Musée Rodin, which means Rodin Museum.

The Kiss is one of Rodin’s greatest works. The sculptor is famed for other great works with the most popular being the Thinker. One of the key aspects of Rodin’s work is his focus on human behavior. For instance, the thinker represents an individual who is thinking deeply, whereas the Kiss represents a couple that is kissing. Rodin’s work, The Kiss, portrays one form of love, which is romance or spousal love (Elsen, 78). However, it ignores all other forms of love, such as friendship, parental love, and godly or spiritual love. The Kiss, however, is a sculpture that directly hints love to the audience. When people view the sculpture, they are more likely to think in the terms of love as opposed to sex. As such, the sculpture also represents love articulately.

On the contrary, Indiana’s sculpture, Love, is rather different. For most people, the sculpture is just a collection of letters that form the word, Love. As such, its representation of love can only be viewed in terms of its spelling. Regardless, the sculpture addresses a general form of love, which is placed on a street, in New York City. Arguably, the chanting of the letter O is used as a strategy to account for the negative space that would be left had the sculptor placed it in the original space.  Although the sculpture is representative of general love, it lacks physical representation.

The Kiss represents a form of love, or just a basic concept of love, as previously described. However, the sculpture is so well shaped, almost perfect in texture, depicting genuine love. Regardless, the sculpture hints love at the sight of it. Limiting the concept of love to a mere marital standing point is one of the major flaws made by the author. On the contrary, Indiana’s vague representation of love conveys the idea of love better. Its location in the street is likely to inspire many people who are just walking by to remember the essence of love. As such, the general approach is more effective in conveying love, both due to its location and its generalization.

Several works and approaches review the theme of love. However, depending on the artists’ intentions, love can be represented in various ways. In this case, Rodin’s representation of love indicates that his assumption of love was based purely on two people ‘falling in love’ and hence does not convey the concept well. In Indiana’s context, the aspect of love has been represented vaguely, which is more accurate as love is a general term, which has several ways to be conveyed. Its location as well suits it better to achieve the intended purpose.