First applied to the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine in 1886, the term “symbolist” was soon applied to the visual arts where a realistic depiction of the natural world gave way to imaginary dream scenes of psychological, sexual, and mystical content. Symbolism was a broad international phenomenon but particularly present in France, where painters such as Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon turned their backs on realism, naturalism, and impressionism to populate their canvases with esoteric, often erotic, visions. In place of Monet’s light-suffused landscapes or the frank working-class subjects of Courbet, the Symbolists turned to figures from literature, the Bible, and Greek mythology to express experiences of love, fear, anguish, death, sexual awakening, and unrequited desire. With featured work from Edward Burne-Jones, Puvis de Chavannes, Gustav Klimt, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon and many more, this book introduces Symbolism’s great reach, intensity, and influence. The author Norbert Wolf graduated in art history, linguistics, and medieval studies at the Universities of Regensburg and Munich, and earned his PhD in 1983. He held visiting professorships in Marburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Nuremberg-Erlangen, and Innsbruck. His extensive writings on art history include many TASCHEN titles, such as Diego Velázquez, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Caspar David Friedrich, Expressionism, Romanesque, Landscape Painting, and Symbolism. Symbolism Norbert Wolf
- Hardcover, 21 x 26 cm, 0.57 kg
- 96 pages
- ISBN 978-3-8365-0706-6
- Edition: English
ABOUT THE SERIES
Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Genre series features: • approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions • a detailed, illustrated introduction • a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a two-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist