Odilon Redon

A French painter and graphic artist, one of the founders of Symbolism in painting. Odilon Redon participated in the creation of the Society of Independent, was a renowned art critic and left personal diaries that are of great interest for the history of fine art. His talent can be mostly seen in his graphic works, although he often painted with oil, depicting mystical scenes and vague images with a deep symbolic and allegorical meaning.

Key ideas:

– At an early stage of work, Odilon Redon mostly created graphic works (lithography and coal). He created small series of paintings, for example, “To Edgar Poe”, “Sources”, “In honor of Goya”, in a very dark tonality and with pessimistic, gloomy subjects. The artist himself called his work “black pieces”. Redon’s creativity of this period is characterized by the image of ambiguous images, as if emerging from nightmares or hallucinations. Mysterious and somewhat frightening motifs, such as an eye in the form of a balloon or a spider with a human face, are accompanied with spacious signatures with explanations.

– In compositions of a later period, which is called “colorful”, Redon’s work undergoes significant changes, but still remains mystical and mysterious. The tone of the paintings becomes much lighter and the artist uses color paints of saturated bright colors. The changes also relate to the choice of plots. Now Redon chooses mythological and biblical scenes, filling them with a completely different meaning than it was accepted, and creating a kind of alternative to common subjects. Disquieting, similar to Surrealism contemplation and detachment dominate in these canvases. The artist works with oil paints.

– The work of Odilon Redon is distinguished by a strong individual base, personal original stylistics and an incredible combination of incompatible things. His canvases have vast emotional load causing vague associations and obscure images, making a person immerse in his inner world and reach his subconsciousness.