Symbolism
Symbolism is an art movement started in late nineteenth century
originating in France and Belgium. Symbolism first appeared in
poetry and then in some other kinds of art. Charles Baudelaire
was one of the founders of the Symbolism art movement. He wrote
the Les Fleurs du mal and expressed the ideals of symbolism.
In 1860s and 1870s, the idea of symbolism was developed more
thoroughly. Ste'phane Mallarme' and Paul Verlaine used the idea
of symbolism and developed this idea into different works of art.
Symbolists appear in the writer's world as authors made use of
different pieces of articles or passages to express their ideas.
In symbolism, artists do not focus on expressing the clear contour
of the things that they are drawing. They just use the object
to express the feelings of the author or the creator's mind.
This means that people will not be talking about a vase when
they are using the vase to tell a story but use the vase as a
symbol for something else. The artist may want to express some
ideas such as people are vulnerable or scared or angry.
Some artists and critics will say that symbolism is actually
an action which is acting against the realism and naturalism in
the real world. Artists working in symbolism encourage others
to use their imagination to figure out what objects in the art
piece could represent.
Sometimes, artists will use the objects to express their religion
or spirit. Of course, the basic ideas about the objects would
still be maintained in symbolism, but the focus of people when
viewing the artwork is the meaning rather than the accuracy of
the description of the real object.
Under the idea of symbolism, the work produced could actually
be interpreted as different meanings. Despite the fact that everyone
would look at the same piece of work, they may have different
ideas in mind because they actually may not know the real idea
in the mind of the artist.
This means that audience may not have the same idea towards the
same piece of artwork. Therefore, this attracts people to study
the background of the artists and try to understand the meaning
of each piece of artwork. Of course, some artists will tell their
friends or write about the meaning behind the symbolic work. But
the majority of the symbolists would not do so and leave their
artwork open for interpretation. This open interpretation is a
technique that is also used in the music industry to gain promotion
for one's work.
Some of the symbolists used their paintings to vent their feelings
at the time of the creation of the art piece. Therefore, the meaning
behind the painting may change over time even with the artist
as maturity and mood has a great deal to do with interpretation
of art in general.
Symbolism is a worthy art movement which has given artists another
way to express their feelings. It has been adopted in all forms
of the arts from the visual arts to music and beyond.
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