Lecture notes: Odilon Redon

Today in class, we went through a lecture about Odilon Redon: a little bit of his biography and his art. We were taking notes during the lecture and I found this task very normal, because that is what I am used to doing from my school back in Poland.

 Here are my notes scanned, and underneath that, I wrote down all the notes in a clear way.

 
Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux on the 20th of April 1840 and died in Paris on the 6th of July 1916. 

Redon started studying drawing at 15, however his father wanted him to become an architect. He failed his exams at Paris' Ecole des Beaux-Arts [eng. Paris' school of fine arts], therefore he could not become an architect. Instead he went back home to study sculpture. 

Paris' Ecole des Beaux-Arts is a school that is still running and some of its school well-known alumni are Auguste Renoir, Pierre Bonnard or Claude Monet. Jean-Léon Gérôme was Redon's tutor. 

Odilon Redon got recognition for his "Guardian Spirit of the Waters" from 1878. This particular work was in his first album of litographs.

"Guardian Spirit of the Waters"(1878)

This work has been done with a combination of different charcoals and black chalk. 

Odilon Redon was a part of the symbolist movement. Symbolism is based on using metaphores and looking for a second, deeper meaning in a work. Other representatives of this movement are for example Edward Munch or Gustav Klimt. 

J.K. Huysmann described Redon's drawings in his book "Against nature". This gave the artist a lot of recognition. 

J.K. Huysmann was a writer - decadent. The word decadentism itself comes from the French word décadence that means fall. Decadent artists were sure that the culture is generally falling and that there is an art and ideology crisis. Decadents were intrigued by the soul and human's psychology. Decantism created a base for symbolism, because here those two movements tie together. 

Here are some works by Odilon Redon from before 1819s:

 "The Crying Spider" (1881)

This work is highly disturbing and creates a very uneasy feeling. It presents a spider-human hybrid in almost a surrealist manner, even though it was created years before surrealism was estabilished. The head is placed as if it was placed on a plate, which is really interesting and keeping in mind that it was created in the symbolism movement, nothing is accidental here. 

"Head of a Matryr"(1877)

Once again the artist uses the idea of putting a head on a plate, this time it is a head of a matryr. A matryr is a person who was killed because of their beliefs, for example their religion. To understand more the background of this piece, I decided to research French history a little deeper, because this work and the title indicates a social problem on a bigger scale and I was right. There was the biggest and the most serious political crisis in France, in 1877. This was based on an argument between the republicans and royalists on the future system in France. This Redon piece could be his response to what was happening in his country, while showing his opinions on current events happening at that time in France.

"Strange Flower "(1880)

When creating works like this one Redon focused on the impossibility of it, because that is what he found intriguing. This work has been done with the usage of charcoals and pencils. 

"Spirit of the forest"(1880)

This work, once again shows a hybrid. Similar to the other works, it is connecting the world of nature with the human world. It is a dream-like drawing, a little bit ahead of its times, since surrealist movement is started in XXth century. 

The Eye like a Strange Balloon Mounts toward Infinity (1882)

This piece, unlike the others, does not contain a full face, however it does contain an eye. The eye is looking up and it is going that direction. As the title says, the eye is going towards infinity, therefore it may just refer to the galaxy and the fact that it is infinite and there will not be anything on its way that would stop it, or it can refer to heaven and God. It could possibly be a piece about finding God and religion, since it is the eye that is going that direction. I really like this piece because it makes me think. 

By 1890s had begun working with pastels and oils and because of that, his style completely changed. It may have been caused by the fact that he found love and got married. Maybe that was an event that made him change the way he sees the world or art itself.

Here are some works by Odilon Redon in color: 

"Portrait of Madame Redon Embroidering" (1880)

This piece was created in 1880, exactly the year when Odilon Redon got married. This work portrays his wife in a very gentle way. The colors she is surrounded with are very rich, very expensive, which makes her look like royalty. Also the golden aura created around her head creates an almost angelic atmosphere. This piece really shows the love Redon had for his wife and how he saw her. 

Later with time, Redon started to experiment with color even more and his works became more vibrant.

"Ophelia" (c.1903)

In this piece colors are really vibrant, it is called Ophelia because it portrays death of the Ophelia from "Hamlet". In Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" Ophelia commits a suicide by drowning herself. Ophelia decides to kill herself after her father dies from her lover's hand. The act of Ophelia drowning has been portrayed many times in art, however this particular one is a lot more vibrant than any other. In my opinion this piece shows more of how was Ophelia feeling when deciding to end her life, it shows the madness and the lack of mental stability. This work is displayed in the National Gallery in London and there is a 5 minute meditation created for it. 

"Reflection" (c.1900-1905)

In this piece, the colors turn to be almost magical. The shades are beautiful and they create an aura of an extraterrestrial environment. It portrays a human looking ahead of themselves, into the blue color. They could be looking into the water or some sort of blue plants. The water would fit better with the title because it would create an actual reflection, however it is important to remember that the work had been created during the symbolism movement. What matters the most is the fact that the person is looking into the color blue. Color blue is often representing sadness, therefore the piece could be understood as a human looking into their sadness and reflecting on their life. I think it is a very interesting piece and once again I enjoy it because it makes me dig deeper and think about it. 

 

Odilon Redon inspired many, I tried to look deeper and find works in my progression route that were inspired by Redon's work. Apparently Citadel Music Festival 2017 campaign was strictly inspired by his work and the sense of magic and dream. 

The creator of the Campaign says: "When we first started talking about the Citadel videos and what we wanted to achieve, I immediately thought of an animated version of an Odilon Redon painting. Something that felt dreamy, magical and beautiful" (Khosravani, 2017).

For the campaign, they have created a collection of posters and a launch video - animation. Here is the animation inspired by Redon's work and colors he used:

I think it is a very interesting link between what I have learned about Redon's work and art created nowadays for a music festival campaign. It is interesting how even one hundred years after Redon passed away, his work is still inspiring artists working in many different industries. I think that the colors worked really well in the campaign and it created a really out of this world atmosphere. 

Reference list

Khosravani, A. (2017) 'How Citadel festival’s science and Redon-inspired artwork was made', interviewed by Jenny Brewer It's Nice That 14.07 available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/citadel-festival-jennifer-heale-andrew-khosravani-artwork-animation-140717 [Accessed: 14/01/21]