Symbolism vs. Post-Impressionism vs. Art Nouveau

1. Symbolism vs. Post-Impressionism vs. Art Nouveau • Symbolism: a late 19th-century movement in art and literature that presented alternatives to the realistic impulses of Realism and Impressionism. • • Symbolism vs. Post-Impressionism: Post-Impressionism can be considered an outgrowth of or a reaction against Impressionism; Symbolism is more of an alternative to Impressionism, with little or no relation to it at all. • • Symbolist / Post-Impressionist “crossovers”: Some artists that we think of primarily as Post-Impressionists can also be considered Symbolists (e.g., Gauguin). Conversely, some artists that we think of primarily as Symbolists can also be considered Post-Impressionists (e.g., Munch). • Art Nouveau (French for “New Art”): a style or movement that took its name from the gallery L’Art Nouveau in Paris, which promoted it. • • Art Nouveau vs. Symbolism: By contrast with Symbolism, Art Nouveau is a specificstyle—the way something looks—irrespective of subject matter or content. Some Symbolists use an Art Nouveau style (e.g., Beardsley); some do not (e.g., Redon).

2. Other Terms / Names for Today’s Lecture • Jugendstil (German for “Youth Style”): a style or movement related to Art Nouveau that flourished in Germany and Austria, taking its name from the magazine Jugend (“Youth”), published in Munich, which promoted it. • Sigmund Freud: Austrian psychiatrist (1856-1939); “father” of psychoanalysis. • femme fatale (French for “fatal [or deadly] woman”): a woman who causes the death, downfall, or destruction of a man. For example: Salomé, Judith, Delilah, or Eve from the Bible; Medusa, Circe, or the Sirens from Greek mythology; Carmen from the famous opera; “vamps” in silent movies, etc.

3. Early hot air balloon Modern hot air balloon

4. Early hot air balloon Daumier, Nadar Elevating Photo- graphy to the Height of Art, 1863

5. Another mid-19th-century tribute to ballooning, contemporary with Daumier’s print, was Jules Verne’s first novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon (1862). Daumier, Nadar Elevating Photo- graphy to the Height of Art, 1863

6. Early hot air balloon Odilon Redon, The Balloon Eye, 1882

7. Note that Redon’s title was deliberately vague and mysterious: The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity. The print (a lithograph) was issued as part of a series dedicated to the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose spooky short stories and haunting poetry were more popular in France than in the U.S. Redon also dedicated another series of prints to Goya, whom he regarded as a precursor and took as a source of inspiration. Odilon Redon, The Balloon Eye, 1882

8. Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799 Redon, The Balloon Eye, 1882

9. Redon, The Balloon Eye, 1882 Aubrey Beardsley (British), Salomé, 1892

10. Oscar Wilde, Title page of the English version of the play, 1894 Beardsley, Salomé, 1892

11. Photo of the dancer Maud Allan as Salomé in an adaptation of Wilde’s play (Note also Richard Strauss’s famous opera of 1905 based on the play) Beardsley, Salomé, 1892

12. Gauguin, Day of the God, 1894 Gauguin was a Post-Impressionist who can also be considered a Symbolist and was also influenced by Art Nouveau. Beardsley, Salomé, 1892

13. Victor Horta (Belgian), Stairwell of Tassel House, Brussels, 1892-93 Beardsley, Salomé, 1892

14. Banister and wall decoration Horta, Stairwell of Tassel House

15. Detail of wall decoration Horta, Stairwell of Tassel House

16. Detail Upstairs at the Tassel House

17. Wall decoration, Tassel House Alphonse Mucha (Czech), Ad for Job Cigarette Papers (poster), 1896

18. Job cigarette papers today Mucha, Ad for Job Cigarette Papers

19. Mucha, Ad for Job Cigarette Papers, 1896 Edvard Munch (Norwegian), The Scream, 1893

20. Note that Munch was a friend and contemporary of the Scandinavian playwrights Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, whose plays also delve into the inner recesses of the mind. Like these plays, Munch’s paintings deal with the anxieties of modern life and have been termed “psychic images of modern existence.” Edvard Munch (Norwegian), The Scream, 1893

21. Entry in Munch’s diary for January 22, 1892: “I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun was setting. I felt a breath of melancholy. Suddenly the sky turned blood-red. I stopped and leaned against the railing, deathly tired, looking out across the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and town. My friends walked on. I stood there, trembling with fear, and I sensed a great, infinite scream pass through nature.” Elsewhere, Munch wrote: “The camera will never be able to rival painting, so long as it is impossible to use it in heaven or in hell.” Edvard Munch (Norwegian), The Scream, 1893

22. Recent spoof of Munch’s painting Munch, The Scream

23. Jugendstil architecture in Vienna

24. This building was the home of the Vienna Secession, an organization of avant-garde artists who broke with the conservative Austrian art establishment. Its most famous member was Gustav Klimt. Jugendstil architecture in Vienna

25. Beardsley, Salomé, 1892 Gustav Klimt (Austrian), Judith, 1901

26. Klimt, The Kiss, 1907-08 Klimt, Judith, 1901

27. Detail Klimt, The Kiss, 1907-08

28. Turn of the century architecture in Barcelona

29. The painting represents Picasso’s so-called “Blue Period,” which can be placed under the heading of Symbolism (but not Art Nouveau!). Pablo Picasso (Spanish), The Old Guitarist, 1903

30. Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903 Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, representing Picasso’s “Rose Period,” 1905