THE SYMBOLIST VISION
How long has there been a Symbolist vision in the history of art?
The answer is as for as long as man has created art.
To choose what is “Symbolist” in art for this exhibition, we surveyed the 19thto the 21stcentury for the Symbolist element, regardless of whether the artists have been categorized as Symbolists or not.
In our survey, many of the works have a religious aspect. The concept of the Sacred and the Profane is essential to the tenets of Symbolism, as it liberates the artist from the materialistic world.
Dream, in which the mind is freed from rational thought, is a source of inspiration in Symbolism.
Horror is often a subject. By facing demons, the artist attempts to tame fear itself.
Death and the afterlife figure prominently in many of the works. Here, the artist confronts mortality and attempts to reveal its secrets.
The erotic is fundamental to Symbolist imagery. Especially depicting the conflicting attitudes, of the 19thcentury up to the present, of human sexuality. Desire, fear, hostilities are all ripe subjects for the Symbolist.
Lastly, many of the aforementioned subjects have been cloaked in mythology, to validate the Symbolist vision.
Symbolists are visionaries who reveal alternate realities and seek out the inner mystique otherwise obscured by the mundane.
RK / DW