Odilon Redon: Literature and Music

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists

Odilon Redon: Literature and Music Details

French artist Odilon Redon (1840–1916) was a painter, lithographer, draftsman and pastellist, as well as a writer, critic and musician. This wide-ranging production between mediums and materials paralleled Redon's fascination with synaesthesia, the idea that an experience can be registered by several senses simultaneously, and that the experience could be more intense when several senses are solicited together―a phenomenon which captured the imaginations of many symbolists.To this end, Redon sought to interweave the expressive powers of literature, music and the visual arts together in works that combined and confused the senses. Next to literary themes and subjects linked to classical drama, Redon was particularly inspired by Richard Wagner's and Robert Schumann's music, among others.With more than 200 illustrations of works largely in private collections and held in the Kröller-Müller Museum, and with essays by renowned experts on Redon and symbolism, this book provides extensive insight into the importance of literature and music in Redon's oeuvre. Addressing some of Redon's favorite themes in abundant visual detail, Odilon Redon: Literature and Music shows how the artist transposed literary and musical motifs in his work, and how he reinvented such themes over and over again to create new associations and meanings.

Reviews

I’m disappointed with this book because it features mostly black & white images of Redon’s symbolic work. I was hoping for the color flower paintings with the woman in the painting sometimes. There is a little chapter right at the end of the book titled Femmes aux Fleurs.

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