Weird Symbolism

Born in 1840, Odilon Redon is known today for his participation in the Symbolism movement. Inspired by natural sciences, magical beings, other artists and authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, Redon put his own unique stamp on symbolism art...albeit a bit creepy.

In his earlier years as an artist and throughout most of his career, Redon didn't use much colour in his work. As his first collection of works called, "Noirs" are drawn in charcoal, he found that black was the most effective colour to express his feelings (I hear you, sister) and the realm of his own imagination.

Redon was drawn to the darker things in his art, possibly because he didn't have the greatest childhood due to him being constantly sickly. Often times in his work, Redon crossed species and created hybrids to which we can see in a lot of his work. The crying spider (c.a 1881) is a prime example of Redon' smashing species together amongst charcoal and paper. (I mean, can you imagine seeing this little guy in your house one night?)

As he grew older, his work changed and he began adding more colour into his work, especially his introduction to pastel in his work which we can see in Head within an Aureole(c.a 1894-95)

This piece created with brown paper, charcoal and pastel is of a male head inside a floating nimbus inside a mysterious cosmic space. The dreamy powder effect of the pastel pink and delicate strokes and dots of cobalt blue pastel was the artist's transition in his later stages of work where he included more colour in his art. In regards to his own work, Redon stated that his drawings were creating to "inspire and do not define themselves" meaning there are many interpretations of each of his artworks. Each drawing evokes appreciation and more often that not, a quizzical stare in wonder of what Redon's thoughts were when he put drawing utensil to paper.

Lots of Redon's work has become more popular among those who appreciate the creepy and unique look of some of his hybrid creations amongst his work. His earlier work seems to evoke more of this feeling of appreciation for the dark and macabre as Redon used primarily black to draw. One viewpoint of his earlier works is that they are meant to appear as creepy and as Gothic as they do. Not to mention, most of his hybrids in his work often have an unhappy expression on their face (see the crying spider above).