Stunning photo of Western masterpiece on bombed building in Syria sweeps social media

'I chose it as an icon of love, a way of looking for the stories of love behind this wall that was completely obliterated by the machinery of war'

Tammam Azzam, 'Freedom Graffiti', Syrian Museum series (Tammam Azzam)

A stunning photo of Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss projected onto a war-torn building in Syria is being shared by people on social media - as military action in the country against Isis intensifes.

In the last few years, Syrian artist Tammam Azzam has produced a series of pictures in which famous Western masterpieces have been projected on to bombed buildings in Syria, to draw attention to the war engulfing the country.

And his image incorporating Klimt’s lovers in a romantic clinch is now again being shared on Twitter, hours after the UK’s MPs voted to approve air strikes in Syria.

Having drawn on work by the likes of Matisse, Goya and Dali for his images, Azzam has said his Photoshopped pictures aim to show that “we are all citizens of the same world”.

On using Klimt’s The Kiss, he said: “I chose it as an icon of love, a way of looking for the stories of love behind this wall that was completely obliterated by the machinery of war.”

Azzam was one of the artists who exhibited at Banksy's UK show Dismaland this year.