Beyond the Stars. The Mystical Landscape from Monet to Kandinsky.
NMR| N° d'inventaire | 20542 |
| Format | 21 x 29 |
| Détails | 272 p., 150 illustrations, hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2017 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782711870387 |
Coming into contact with an order beyond physical appearances, going beyond material realities to approach the mysteries of existence, experiencing self-forgetfulness in perfect unity with the cosmos: all these quests characterize mysticism, a spiritual phenomenon present alongside all religions, on all continents. Why not recognize its presence in Western Symbolist painting, which, at the twilight of the 19th century, sought precisely to elevate art to the rank of medium of the ineffable, and the artist to the rank of initiate? Prepared in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario in Ottawa, the exhibition aims to investigate the mystical aspect of the Symbolist landscape. The elevation towards infinity, the ordeal of the night, the quest for light, the search for the fusion of the individual with the whole, the experience of the transcendent forces of nature: these situations, both sensitive and spiritual, sought or experienced by both the symbolist landscape painter and the viewer of his works, are similar to the stages of the mystical journey. The selection of works includes landscapes by Gauguin, Denis, Monet, Hodler, Klimt, Munch, Van Gogh, but also by the main representatives of the North American school of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Lawren Philip Harris, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.
Coming into contact with an order beyond physical appearances, going beyond material realities to approach the mysteries of existence, experiencing self-forgetfulness in perfect unity with the cosmos: all these quests characterize mysticism, a spiritual phenomenon present alongside all religions, on all continents. Why not recognize its presence in Western Symbolist painting, which, at the twilight of the 19th century, sought precisely to elevate art to the rank of medium of the ineffable, and the artist to the rank of initiate? Prepared in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario in Ottawa, the exhibition aims to investigate the mystical aspect of the Symbolist landscape. The elevation towards infinity, the ordeal of the night, the quest for light, the search for the fusion of the individual with the whole, the experience of the transcendent forces of nature: these situations, both sensitive and spiritual, sought or experienced by both the symbolist landscape painter and the viewer of his works, are similar to the stages of the mystical journey. The selection of works includes landscapes by Gauguin, Denis, Monet, Hodler, Klimt, Munch, Van Gogh, but also by the main representatives of the North American school of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Lawren Philip Harris, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr.