The Symbolist Movement of the Late 1800's

My last post included a work from French symbolist painter Odilon Redon. I would like to discuss the Symbolist movement in more detail with this post. They are a group of late 19th and early 20th century artists and poets, including Jean Moreas (who published the symbolist manifesto in 1886), Charles Baudelaire, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, and Paul Gauguin among many others.

Odilon Redon, Cyclops, 1904.

Originating in France, with many German influences as well, it consisted of not just artists, but poetry and other arts also. Here is a quote from Jean Moreas from the aforementioned symbolist manifesto:

"In this art, scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideals."

- Jean Moreas, Le Manifeste du Symbolisme, Le Figaro, 1886

Symbolism was a reaction to the realist or naturalism movement that also originated in France in the mid 19th century. (Which in itself was a reaction to romanticism, the cycle never ends!) The symbolists sought to express a more ideal reality, rather than the rigid and emotionless works of the realists. One of the main influences of artists in the symbolist movement was their dreams. Let's hear from the French poet and symbolist Charles Baudelaire on this point:

"Common sense tells us that terrestrial things have but a faint existence and that reality itself is only found in dreams."

- Charles Baudelaire, Les Paradis Artificiels

I couldn't agree more with those words. If you read my last post on the fact that all matter is energy, this would imply that dreams on some level are indeed real. Yes some dreams are just because you ate pizza right before bed, but some dreams are much more than that. Some are also just a reflection of your mind, and the things it observes every day. In any case my dreams have provided me with inspiration and a re-interpretation of my own ideas in ways my conscious mind would of never done.

Jean Delville, Orpheus, 1893.

Although I don't dig all of the work by the symbolists (still too real for my taste), I dig that they made efforts to break away from expressing or rather merely recreating the physical material world, and expressing more spiritual truths and ideals. I know I have harped on this point before, about that criticism of some modern art that goes, "a five year old could paint that" or "I could do that". That kind of thinking misses the point entirely on non-objective art. The point is not a showcase of how well you can recreate life with paint and a brush, the point is to express whatever the hell I want to and if you don't like it, go look at something else! Alright I got a little excited there, but I don't create to get validation, I create to express myself, and in so doing, learn more about my self.