Title: Symbolism: Fin de Si
1- Symbolism Fin de Siècle Europe
-
- Flight from modernity, Primitivist critique of
European culture, reaction against 19th century
mechanistic Positivism the dominant faith in
science and technology. - Objective optical realism" of Impressionism is
rejected for the representation of personal
symbols, memory, imagination, and dreams to
evoke a sympathetic understanding of the artist's
Idea in the viewer as music does. - "Art has gone through a long period of
aberration caused by physics, chemistry,
mechanics, and the study of nature....Artists,
having lost all their savagery, went astray on
every path." - Gauguin
2Symbolism and Decadence Subjective
vision CORRESPONDENCES (a literal translation
from the French) Charles Baudelaire,
1857 Nature is a temple whose living columns
sometimes allow confused words to escape man
passes through these forests of symbols, Which
regard him with familiar looks. Charles
Baudelaire's Theory of Correspondences in which
objects become signs for the artist's personal
ideas and feelings includes the idea of
"Synesthesia" in which the 5 senses yield
equivalent and concomitant responses, so that a
line can be "noble" or "false (Gauguin), a shade
of yellow, "sour" and clanging (Kandinsky).
3Paul Gauguin, Mallarmé (Nevermore), lithograph
for publication in artists magazine,1891
4Paul Gauguin, Where Do We Come From? What Are We?
Where Are We Going? Oil on burlap, 139 375 cm,
18971898Symbolism and Primitivism
5(left) Paul Sérusier, Talisman, 1888, oil on
cigar box lidNabis, Pont Aven School of
Gauguin (Studio of the North)(right)
Sérusier, Portrait of Paul Ranson Dressed as a
Prophet (Nabi)1890, oil on canvas, 60 x 45 cm
6Maurice Denis (French Nabis and Symbolist
painter, 18701943), Muses in the Sacred Wood,
oil on canvas, 1893
-
- Remember that a picture, before being a battle
horse, a nude, an anecdote or whatnot, is
essentially a flat surface covered with colors
assembled in a certain order. - Maurice Denis, Definition of Neo-Traditionalism
, 1890
7James Ensor (Belgian Symbolist, 1860-1949), Self
Portrait with Masks, 1899
. . . and my suffering, scandalized, insolent,
cruel, malicious masks. . . I have joyfully shut
myself in the solitary milieu ruled by the mask
with a face of violence and brilliance.
James Ensor
8James Ensor, Entry of Christ into Brussels in
1889, 1888, 99 x 169, oil on canvas, The
GettyCompare Dostoyevsky's The Grand Inquisitor
from The Brothers Karamazov
9James Ensor, detail of Entry of Christ into
Brussels in 1889 Compare with (right) Hieronymus
Bosch (Netherlandish c. 1450-1516) Christ
Carrying the Cross, ca. 1515-1516, oil on wood.
10James Ensor, The Intrigue, 1890, oil on
canvasCompare Francisco Goya (Spanish,
1746-1828), The Witches Sabbath (detail) 1820-23,
fresco transferred to canvas Hieronymus Bosch,
Christ Carrying the Cross, ca. 1515-1516, oil on
wood.
11Odilon Redon (French Symbolist painter and
graphic artist (1840-1916), The Eye Balloon,
charcoal, 1878 (right) Redon, The Smiling
Spider, 1881, charcoal, 49.5 x 39 cm
The prince of mysterious dreams (Huysmans)
12Odilon Redon, Silence, 1911, oil on paper /
Symbolist
- My sole aim To instill in the spectator, by
means of quite unexpected allurements, all the
evocations and fascinations of the unknown on the
boundaries of thought. - Redon
13Edvard Munch (Norwegian Symbolist-Expressionist
1863-1944)Self Portrait with Cigarette, 1895,
oil on canvas,110.5 x 85.5 cm. Munch lived off
and on in Paris between 1889-1892
14Edvard Munch, The Vampire, oil on canvas, 1893
15Munch, Puberty, 1895, oil on canvas, 60 x 43
16Munch, The Dance of Life, 1899-1900, oil on
canvas, 49 1/2 x 75, National Gallery, Oslofrom
the series, The Frieze of Life, which contained
most of Munchs major paintings
17- Munch, The Lonely Ones, woodcut, 1894, and
painting, 1935
18Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, Casein/waxed
crayon and tempera on paper (cardboard), 35 7/8 x
29, National Gallery, Oslo(Left) Munch, The
Scream, 1893, woodcut
As he walked across a bridge with friends at
sunset he was seized with despair and felt a
great, infinite scream pass through nature.
19- This version of The Scream was stolen from the
Norwegian National Gallery in 1994.
August, 2004 thieves escaping with another
version of The Scream from the Munch museum in
Norway. Recovered August, 2006 with minor damage.
Two paintings are valued at 15 million dollars.
Madonna, 1894-95
Recovery CBS news
20Gustav Klimt (Austrian Symbolist / Secessionist,
1862-1918) Death Life, 1916 (Arnason seems to
be in error)
21Klimt, Idyll, 1884, Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 73.5
cmVienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum
22Klimt, Love, 1895, Oil on canvas, 60 x 44 cm,
Vienna Art Historical Museum
23Klimt, Pallas Athene, 1898, Oil on canvas, 75 x
75 cm
24Joseph Maria Olbrich, (Austrian,
1867-1908)Vienna Secession building, 1898,
Jugendstijl (Austrian Art Nouveau)
Above the entrance To every age its art and to
art its freedom
Gustav Klimt was a founder of the Vienna Secession
25Klimt, Beethoven Frieze The Hostile Powers,
1902, Casein paint on stucco, 220 x 635 cm,
Vienna Secession building, lower floor
26Klimt, Beethoven Frieze Praise to Joy, the
God-descended, 1902Casein paint on stucco, 220 x
470 cm
27Vienna Secession Building, Jugendstijl details of
front. Designs attributed to Koloman Moser
(Austrian Painter and Designer, 1868-1918)
28Koloman Moser, Bookcase, 1903, made by Caspar
Hrazdil, Vienna, Thuya and Lemon Wood, Brass, and
Glazed Glass, 57 x 39 x 16 in.(right) Moser,
cover design for Ver Sacrum (Rite of Spring),
international Jugenstijl magazine of Vienna
Secession, published from January 1898 to October
1903
29Koloman Moser, Stained glass window for St.
Leopolds Church (Kirche Am Steinhof), 1905-7,
the church of Viennas psychiatric hospital, Otto
Wagner, architect.
30The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop), an Arts
Crafts Movement, established in 1903, brought
together architects, artists and designers
committed to design (primarily jewelry, fabrics
for clothing, ceramics and pottery, and
furniture). (right) the Stoclet Palace,
Brussels, Belgium, designed by Josef Hoffmann and
built by the Weiner Werkstätte, 1905-11, This
integration of architects, artists, and artisans
makes it an example of Gesamtkunstwerk the first
aim of the Vienna Workshop.
Wiener Werkstätte logo
31Auguste Rodin, Gates of Hell, 1880-1917, with
detail (left)Symbolist
32Detail of Rodins Gates of Hell Fugit
AmorModernist aesthetics of fragmentation and
theissue of originality (vs. the copy /
reproduction) as a modernist myth
33Sculpture exhibition Paris World Fair 1900
34(left) Auguste Rodin (French Sculptor, 1840-1917)
in studio with collection of antique sculptures
fragments with Balzac study (right) artist among
his fragments
35Rodin, Detail of Gates of Hell with The Thinker
and sourcesMichelangelo and Durer
Michelangelo, Last Judgment, 1535
Night, Michelangelo, 152034
Durer, Melancholia, 1515
36Rodin, Gates of Hell, Three Shades, with tourist
photo (center) in Paris and single Shade at the
Atlanta High Museum
37Constantin Brancusi (Romania, 1876-1957) (left)
Vitellius, 1898(right) Brancusi in Paris studio,
1933The Saint of Montparnasse
Brancusi was an admirer of 17th c. Tibetan monk
and poet, Milarepa of the Himalayas
38(left) Brancusi, Sleep, 1908(right) Medardo
Rosso (Italian 1858-1917) Ecce Puer, 1896We are
nothing but a play of light (Rosso)
39Brancusi, Child Supplicant, bronze 1906 and
Newborn, 1915 (right)
40Brancusi, Sleeping Muse, life-size, bronze, 1910
41Brancusi, The Origin of the World, 1924
42Matisses (modernist) quest for the essential
(true) sign is shared by Brancusi Constantin
Brancusi, clockwise from upper left Supplicant
Child, 1906, Sleeping Muse 1910 Newborn, 1915
and two versions of The Origin of the World, 1920s
43Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss, 1907 version
(left) and the Memorial park at Tîrgu Jiu,
Romania showing the The Gate of the Kiss, 1937
and part of contemplation group
The Kiss, which symbolizes the marriage of the
material and the spiritual, life and death, and
in general the dialectical unification of the
dualities of human experience
44Brancusi, Table of Silence, Memorial Park at
Tirgu Jiu, Romania, 1937
45Brancusi, Endless Column, Memorial park at Tirjiu
Jiucast iron with copper coating, 1937
46Brancusi, Endless Column, (left) under
reconstruction, 1999(center) Segments of Endless
Column(right) Donald Judd, Untitled, 1970
47Brancusi, Bird in Space, 1925, marble, stone, and
wood Brancusis Paris studio 1927 photographs
by artistAll my life I have sought the essence
of flight. Dont look for mysteries. I give you
pure joy. Look at the sculptures until you see
them. Those closest to God have seen them
48Brancusi studio, Pompidou Center, Paris