In 1886 the French poet Jean Moreas published his 'symbolist manifesto' in the newspaper Le Figaro. Moreas explained that in symbolist art 'depictions of nature............are but appearances'; the artist's aim should be to reveal the 'idea' that lies beneath the surface of reality.
The symbolists were less concerned with description than suggestion. They sought to evoke inner meanings, to conjure up moods and dream states through the way in which they represent reality.
Two of the ways that we can achieve similar through photography are the use of long exposure times to evoke the idea of movement and producing abstract images through zooming or moving the camera during long exposures.
Landscape was an ideal subject for symbolist painters. It provided motifs that are recognisable to us all and have particular associations: evening twilight can evoke a sense of loss or nostalgia; a calm sea brings to mind the idea of infinity. I wonder though about twilight before sunrise - very much the same colours in the sky but does this evoke the same feelings as evening twilight?
The exhibition is in 6 sections and I have picked out some examples from each that particularly appealed to me or that I felt have a ling with photography.
Arcadia
Disillusioned by the marerialism of the modern world, symbolist artists sought a means of escape in the image of Arcadia, the mythical land of peace and plenty. Some draw on ancient legend to suggest the decline of civilisation.
Most of these paintings and artists were unfamiliar to me and not much to my taste. I did recognise Paul Gaugin, however. In order to seek out landscapes unaltered by civilisation, he travelled to Martinique and Tahiti, the subject of his two works here. In Matinique Landscape, 1887, he deliberately omits any trace of civilisation and attempts to leave an impression of untouched paradise. He has used a vertical format and place a bush and a tree conventionally on thirds. I actually recognised Woman on a White Horse, 1903. Although he again attempts to recreate a utopian paradise he includes a 'glowing white cross' from the catholic cemetery.
In Clytie,c1892, Frederic, Lord Leighton paints wonderful streaming cumulus clouds piled high in the sky with the setting sun backlighting the sky and clouds and painting them golden. The gradation into the eggshell blue of a sunset sky shows through. Reference can be made here to projects 16 and 18.
Woderful evening light and towering cumulus clouds also feature in Evening Poem, 1897 by Alphonse Osbert. Here the horizon divides the painting in half something I try (often with difficulty) to avoid, but a ruined temple has been placed on the intersection of thirds.
Moods of Nature
Many symbolist painters drew on nature for it's representation of moods, eg the calm before the storm or the melancholy of twilight.
I aprticularly enjoyed Calm Before the Storm, 1906 by Hans Thoma. It is very naturalistic and reminded me of a photograph. The picture is in three horizontal layers, much like my Thoresway image. Bright sunlit corn is in the foreground, then a band of trees and overshadowing all the looming black storm clouds. In a photograph, as in this painting, it works when brightly lit by the sun. I took a similar image at Fulstow.
I also like The Broken Pine, 1906 by Akseli Gallen-Kallela - it reminds me of an image of a broken pine I took recently oin the Caringorm Mountains of Scotland. The pine signifies the death of Albert Edelfelt the previous year, a great loss to Finnish painting.
The Forest, 1892 by Prince Eugen, son of Oscar II of sweden, is a rather gloomy picture and is thought to be a metaphor for the journey through life. I love the ancient caledonian pine forests of Scotland and have taken several images of such primeval forest.
Claud Monet's Grain Stacks, 1891, near Giverney reduces the background detail and only hints at snow. This is very like Pete Cairns image of ptarmigan with snow covered hills in the background from 2020 vision. Here also the snow covered hills are only hinted at.
Silent Cities
Towards the end of the 19th Century, the industrial revolution had brought us adifferent, dirtier more urbanised cities. Symbolist painters sought out more picturesque cities such as Venice or the medieval city of Bruges.
The Quay, a view of Quai Long in Bruges in 1989 by Henri Led Sidaner, is a melacholy painting of a deserted quay at dusk. The blurred reflection of houses is supposed to suggest another world. There are still scenes like this in Bruges today, although there is the difficulty of avoiding cars in the image.
Nocturene: Grey and Silver, 1875 is one of a series by James Abbot McNeil Whistler. It is of the Thames but merely suggests the city. It reminds me of some of Pete Bridgewood's long expose photographs which again, are simlistic scenes smoothed by lengthy exposures.
Dreams and Visions
In conjunction with the evolution of the science of psychology and the increase in our knowledge of the human mind and the unconscious, artists such as Paul Gaugin, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh used vivid colour to express their personal visions.
Walter Crane in The Horses of Neptune, 1892 depicted waves as galloping white horses pulling Neptune in his chariot. I could wish that my wave images taken at Flamborough head had Neptune and his horses rather than mere gannets!!
Van Gogh's The Sower, 1882 is as bright and vivid as if it had been painted yesterday. This painting is thought to be inspired by the biblical parable of the sower. The sower and the sun are on a third and agin the horizon cuts the image in half.
Although I did not know the painting, I immediately recognised Man and Woman on the Beach as the work of Edvard Munch from its similarity in style to The Scream. Although painting a real beach, he tries to portray the inner turmoil of the figures who are placed to ome side and look into the painting.
Rythms of Nature
A response to the advances in science in the 19th Century. Artsits sought to portray such concepts in various ways. Geological flux, the elemental forces and materials such as heat, light, rock and water become inspirations.
Van Gogh painted Wheatfield with Reaper from the window of the asylum at St Remy to which he was admitted in in 1898. In a letter to his brother he wrote ' I saw this reaper - a vague firgure struggling like a devil in the full heat of the day to reach the end of his toil - I then saw the image of death in it, in the sense that humanity would be the wheat being reaoed. But in this death nothing is sad, it takes place in broad daylight with a sun that floods everything with a light of fine gold'. This painting has the wonderful bright warm clours of high summer. Images I am trying to create with my harvest shots.
Alpine Landscape, 1894 by August Strindberg is a very bright, fresh and impressionistic painting. He mixed the colours actually on the painting. I liked this. It was in a vertical format.
In Woods near Oele, 1908 Piet Mondrian paints caledonian pines but using red and blue colours, symbolic of the material and aspiration.
Towards Abstraction
Artists gradually began to simplify their motifs as description became less important than the search for unity through colour and touch. The ultimate here is Kandinsky in Mrnau with Church, 1910 and Cossacks, 1910-11. Perhaps similar effects can be achieved in photography by zooming and dragging durning long exposures.
What have I learned from this Exhibition.
To try and get behind what it is that I want to portray - what mood or idea do I want my images to convey. This links noicely with my tutor's comments from Assignment 2.
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