19 March 2006

Mutts and Gustav Klimt

I love the Mutts comic. The main characters are a dog and a cat, Earl and Mooch. It's very cute and funny. Not Family Circus funny. It's actually clever. Mooch is obsessed with a little pink sock. He dances it around, sings to it, naps with it. (The cartoon at right is so Sophie. When we come inside I can barely get her leash off before she's up the stairs and into the sunbeam.)

In the book, Sunday Afternoons, there are several classic art pieces redone done Mutts style. I love their take on my favorite painting, Der Kuss, by Gustav Klimt. In it, Woofie, a golden-retriever-type dog is embracing Mooch the cat. Woofie is trying to hold Mooch tight and Mooch is trying to back away. I saw the real Der Kuss in Vienna at the Oesterreichische Galerie in Vienna. Unlike the picture in the link above, the actual painting is big, something like four or five square. The colors are vibrant and the gold in the picture is gold leaf. It practically shimmers. When I first saw it, it took my breath away.

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