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Research on Odilon Redon

According to the title of my blog post, today I am going to take deeper research of the XIX century artist - Odilon Redon.

All the information should be based on my notes, which I took during the class. In terms of preparing for future lecturers in University life. But I found out difficult to caught the important notes in the current situation. I believe that the lecturers in real life, in a face to face system, will be more beneficial for both sides.

Anyway, I would like to support the pieces of information about the lifetime of today's character. In order to make my writing more valuable. 

He was born in Bordeaux, France on April 20, 1840. Died in  His nickname was created after mother's first name, Odile. His father pulled him to study architecture instead of art, but in 1857 Redon failed the entrance exams for architectural studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. But Odilon stayed in Paris with influential, famous friends such as Charles Baudelaire, Gustave Flaubert, and Edgar Allan Poe. Those people, in general, started to introduce the influential point of Hinduism and Buddhism. 

In 1864 Redon entered the atelier of the famous academic painter, Jean-Leon Gerome. Artworks were a far different and painted in tribute to the renaissance. And looking for more of a challenge he left the master's studio. 

In 1870 he was drafted into the Franco-Prussian War. The experience interrupted his life and work as an artist. The war changes people, the same happened with Odilon. In his mature years, he was going into melancholy. Black became the ideal medium to express his imagination. As Redon said, "Black should be respected. Nothing prostitutes it. It does not please the eye and does not awaken sensuality. It is the agent of the spirit much more than the splendid colour of the palette or the prism."

Guardian Spirit of the Waters (1878)

This painting presents a large head held above a tranquil sea, gazing upon a small sailboat with a tremendous eye. As he admitted, he always wanted to born on the sea. It is an image of a personal trip into the deepest desires.

Besides, he has been made a lot of charcoal drawings, such as Cactus Man (1881). The theme with a head is repeated again, this time it has been pierced and looking into a sky without an expression. a symbol of Western culture and containment - Redon's hybrid man-plant can thus be understood as an attempt to reconcile the two poles of human existence, nature and culture, wild and civilized.

He started attending to symbolists gatherings in the 1890s. There they were exchanging ideas and evoke the imagination. The same temptation has Paul Gauguin, postimpressionist. He was travelling into Tahiti, where he experienced the best artistic period. He has a vision and both admired themselves. This impact has changed the solution of how to emphasise his inner feelings. He strongly introduced the role of colours, gave them meaning. It was a radical change, pastel and vibrant colours replaced the monochromatic pieces. I think this gave him a bright into his life, after a depression. He met a valuable person which evaluated his style. Apparently, other sources give his son as one of the reasons. Personally, mostly enjoy the symbolic, impressionist style. The examples of those presented the sensitivity and clarify for the viewer, what the artist wanted to say. According to the statement from the one of the culture website ''Color simply became another means by which he could explore realms beyond the visible, using it for expressive rather than mimetic purposes.'' (Odilon Redon Biography, Life & Quotes, n.d.)


Baronne de Domecy, about 1900

The great change in materials and colours we can note in this portrait. This painting presents his friend's wife. We can define the realistic and precise manner to remind the previous artworks. But without expression, she does not watch the viewer, she seemed to be somewhere else. The rest of her apparel artist present in form of the flower. The red blouse is lively, vivid and growing upon. Maybe therefore he was trying to emphasise the role of her soul and heart rather than her issues. Also, I would like to connect the pointillism manner with symbolic and postimpressionism either. This painting was challenging and one of the first brave movement in his career. 
Most of his works have a religion and personal context. The most fascinating is his series with a marine theme. 

(Both) Flower clouds, 1903

His old days were abundant with flower pattern. The fascinated with colours and solutions. The series with boats is a tribute to nature and belongings to human emotions. The boat is drifting on the calm and peaceful water. Characters are watching the scenery. Despite the changed wether, everything stayed in the same place. Especially these inspired me to run the project, Purple Haze. It is exactly the way which I adore in describing the weather periods.

The red boat with blue sails, 1907

The last piece with blue sails. Like Redon admitted, he has been feeling the inner connection with the sea. I am sure, that a lot of studies and hours of observing reached that effect. Especially under the boat, we can see the dark blue (ultramarine) comparison with red. Which it comes to my mind Henri Matisse's palette.




Resources:

The Art Story. n.d. Odilon Redon Biography, Life & Quotes. [online] Available at: <https://www.theartstory.org/artist/redon-odilon/life-and-legacy/> [Accessed 19 January 2021].

Redon, O., 1878. Guardian Spirit Of The Waters. [Charcoal and chalk on paper].

Redon, O., 1900. Baronne De Domecy. [Pastel and graphite].

Redon, O., 1903. Flower Clouds. [Pastel and graphite].

Redon, O., 1906. Red Boat With A Blue Sail. [Pastel and graphite].




Comments

  1. Sam Dargan24 January 2021 at 15:36

    Good notes, well written and thoughtful about Redon's work. Would have been good to have read more about the possible influence of Redon's work on your project - you said towards the end of the post that some of the images have inspired you but not in what way.

    ReplyDelete

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