'The Kiss' In Syria: Artist Tammam Azzam Goes Viral With His Take On Gustav Klimt's Artwork (PHOTOS)

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.