PART 1 PROJECT 2 Research Point 1

"I have often, as an exercise and as a sustenance, painted an object down to the smallest accidents of its visual appearance; but the day left me sad and with an unsatiated thirst. The next day I let the other source run, that of imagination, through the recollection of the forms and I was then reassured and appeased." Odilon Redon

I read this quote several times before its meaning sunk in with me. I found it apt at this stage as I often become bored or frustrated at producing a realistic piece of work because my perfectionism gets in the way. My work flows better when I create from imagination or at least if I’m using a little creativity whilst observing a still life for instance. That’s why I seemed to enjoy the group of objects exercise, looking through the objects with relation to each other’s placement.

From: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-redon-odilon.htm

‘Redon is one of the most important and original of all the Symbolist artists. His visionary works concern the world of dreams, fantasy, and the imagination. He first became famous for his noirs series, monochromatic compositions that exploit the expressive and suggestive powers of the color black. His lithographs, which often reworked earlier drawings, became a means to broaden his audience, as well as to explore in series specific themes or literary texts - he was particularly drawn to the Romantic and Symbolist works of Poe, Flaubert, and Mallarmé. Later, Redon began to slowly adopt a more colorful palette, so that his pastels and oil paintings are riotous with color, consisting largely of portraits and floral still lifes. His encounter with the Nabis introduced him to a more decorative aesthetic, and his late works incorporate Japonisme as well as an attention to flat, abstract patterns, and decorative ensembles. Redon would have an enormous impact on the art of his contemporaries, such as Paul Gauguin, as well as later modern artists like Marcel Duchamp. His lithographs and noirs in particular were admired by the Symbolist writers of the day but also by later Surrealists for their often bizarre and fantastical subjects, many of which combine scientific observation and visionary imagination.

Redon worked almost exclusively in black and white during the first half of his career. In both charcoal drawings and lithographic prints, the artist relied on the expressive and suggestive possibilities of black in his monochromatic compositions called noirs. These are some of his most famous works, and typify Symbolism in their mysterious subjects and bizarre, dreamlike inventions.

From: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Odilon-Redon

Odilon Redon, (born April 20, 1840, Bordeaux, France—died July 6, 1916, Paris), French Symbolist painter, lithographer, and etcher of considerable poetic sensitivity and imagination, whose work developed along two divergent lines. His prints explore haunted, fantastic, often macabre themes and foreshadowed the Surrealist and Dadaist movements. His oils and pastels, chiefly still lifes with flowers, won him the admiration of Henri Matisse and other painters as an important colourist.

From: https://www.odilon-redon.org/

Bertrand-Jean Redon better known as Odilon Redon (April 20, 1840 - July 6, 1916) was a Symbolist painter and printmaker, born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France. Odilon was a nickname derived from his mother, Odile.

Other sources:

https://www.wikiart.org/en/odilon-redon

I have included a variety of his work here, not just the charcoal works. The tonal depth is also apparent in the colour pastel pieces. A definite atmosphere is emanating from the pictures.

When I study an artist, I like to try and copy a piece from a painting and then recreate my own work in the style. I am going to try 'I plunged into solitude' (1896) in the next post.