»Otherworldly Visions«

Odilon Redon (1840–1916) is known for his mysterious works, which celebrated the beauty of nature and explored the dreamlike depths of the imagination. His paintings are an expression of his unique visions, which drew inspiration from numerous sources, such as religion, mythology, literature, and new scientific discoveries of the late 19th century. Until the late 1880s, he painted almost exclusively in black and white, which is why this period is also referred to as the »Black Period«. They are explorations of the subconscious; fears and nightmares dominate his compositions. Redon’s works are associated with Symbolism, a movement that originated in literature. He sympathized with the focus on symbolic representations and the departure from Naturalism, but was never part of the group, as he was not convinced by more detailed theories and guidelines. Starting July 14, the Getty Center in Los Angeles will present charcoal drawings, lithographs, and pastels by the artist from its own collection in the exhibition Odilon Redon: Otherworldly Visions. The show closes on October 18.

From the very beginning, Redon was an artist who forged his own path: as a young man, he resented the constraints of academic art education, and later he rejected the emerging Impressionist movement—whose final exhibition in 1886 he had participated in—as too restrictive. For many years, during his »Black Period«, Redon created primarily charcoal drawings and prints. Starting in the 1890s, he quite suddenly began incorporating color into his work, presumably under the influence of his friends Paul Gauguin and Maurice Denis. In addition, Redon developed a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religions, which became increasingly evident in his work. The artist’s oeuvre is considered an early precursor to Surrealism.