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The year 1884 saw the appearance in Paris of a fin de sicle cult novel that was celebrated as an altogether perverse sensation on the European cultural scene. The title of the book was A Rebours (translated both as Against the Grain and Against Nature). Its author Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote it as a seductive textbook of decadence, as an antidote to banal naturalism or realism. Symbolism, whose influence was felt well into the modernist era, was an artistic religion-substitute, a spiritually charged cult of beauty. A Symbolist picture or sculpture is mysterious on purpose. In place of intellectual comprehension, the work seeks to have the beholder experience its mysterious depth like a vision. It is no wonder that Symbolists created some of the most fascinating artworks of their age.
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Symbolism, Norbert Wolf
- Language
- Released
- 2009
- product-detail.submit-box.info.binding
- (Flexi-binding)
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- Title
- Symbolism
- Language
- English
- Authors
- Norbert Wolf
- Publisher
- Taschen
- Released
- 2009
- Format
- Flexi-binding
- Pages
- 96
- ISBN10
- 3822854824
- ISBN13
- 9783822854822
- Series
- Taschen Basic Genre
- Rating
- 4 out of 5
- Description
- The year 1884 saw the appearance in Paris of a fin de sicle cult novel that was celebrated as an altogether perverse sensation on the European cultural scene. The title of the book was A Rebours (translated both as Against the Grain and Against Nature). Its author Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote it as a seductive textbook of decadence, as an antidote to banal naturalism or realism. Symbolism, whose influence was felt well into the modernist era, was an artistic religion-substitute, a spiritually charged cult of beauty. A Symbolist picture or sculpture is mysterious on purpose. In place of intellectual comprehension, the work seeks to have the beholder experience its mysterious depth like a vision. It is no wonder that Symbolists created some of the most fascinating artworks of their age.