Group 9 Symbolism

•Prior to the rise of Symbolism was Modernism.

•Modern artists sought to emphasize their connection to the Classical past.

•Artists such as Vincent van Gogh made representational art based on concepts of mimesis using impressionist techniques.

•Symbolism was an attempt to free European artists from modernism and the European art traditions of the time. 

•It was conceived during a time of depression from capitalism and was a direct reaction to European culture at the time (late 19th century). 

•Symbolism represented sensual liberation through the return to “primitivism,” a retreat into dreams and nonrepresentational art, and was a tool for cultural criticism. 

•It was a tool for internationalism that expanded the artistic styles of some European artists and was a precursor to the dreamscape of Surrealism and the irregular landscape of Cubism.

 •Ideist- for the expression of the Idea. 

•Symbolist- for it will express the idea by means of form 

•Synthetist- for it will present these forms and signs according to  a method that is generally understandable. 

•Subjective- the object will never be considered as an object but as the sign of the idea perceived by the subject. 

•Decorative- decorative painting, as the Egyptians, Greeks, and other primitive cultures understood it, is nothing more than a manifestation of art as subjective, synthetic, symbolic, and ideist.

•Symbolist landscape painters depicted nature as a place to escape modernity. 

•They excluded the symbols of modern life (buildings, houses, etc.) from their paintings and sometimes painted the landscapes of dreams and myths.

 •The symbolist depict nature as bigger than and independent of humans.

 •In an attempt to further escape the rigors of modern Europe and reject materialism, Paul Gauguin moved to Tahiti. 

•There he falls in love with the simplicity of the indigenous people of that island but starts to further resent the colonization and assimilation by the racist French regime. 

•Being the poster guy for symbolism, he truly makes his art more representative of the idea rather than the object. 

•His paintings of the Tahitian people are based on his ideas of innocence and “primitivism.”

 Works Cited 

Eisenman, Stephen M. Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History. 4th ed. New York, NY: Thames      &Hudson, 2011.