DAY 133

ART THROUGH THE AGES

Symbolism

OPENING THE MIND’S EYE

Deliberately embracing ambiguity, the Symbolists rejected the reality of nature celebrated in the past movements of Impressionism and Realism. As the Industrial Age drastically changed the economic and cultural landscape of Europe, the Symbolists turned to fantasy and used dream logic to guide their art. Their dreamscape images were inspired by the darker sides of Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites. Severed heads, the femme fatal, spirits, and monsters were some of the subjects they used to convey a morbid fascination with the unknowable subconscious. They excavated classic mythology, the work of symbolist writers, and the Bible for content as well.

Transcendental, erotic, and macabre, Symbolism is a difficult movement to sum up in a neat historical package with a defined aesthetic. Symbolism was more of a general outlook on the arts. Symbolists prized the artist’s personal, inner vision over the re-creation of reality, and evoking an emotion was the key to their approach. Their aesthetic ranged from mimetically rendered figurative paintings to highly abstracted fields of color.

Symbolism spread throughout Europe and its reach extended beyond the visual arts into theater, literature, and music.

Eventually, dethroned by Modernism and World War I, the Symbolist state of mind was relegated to history as an aberration. However, many of the great Modernist movements—from Expressionism to Surrealism—owe much of their inspiration, imagery, and style to Symbolism. —ARR

Selected artists: Aubrey Beardsley, Arnold Böcklin, James Ensor, Paul Gauguin, Gustav Klimt, Gustave Moreau, Edvard Munch, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon