[mllesentiment]

Do any of you INFJ art appreciators who know what the symbolist movement was have a strong attraction to the decadence of that time period and the religious/moral/psychological undertones of it? I swear I feel like this movement was built based around our psyche (or is it just me and my mildly diseased imagination?). If y'all don't know what I'm talking about, Google painters such as Jan Toorop (love him to death), Odilon Redon (love him even more) and Gustave Moreau. I just remember someone on this forum calling INFJ's conservative bohemians. That kind of stuck with me... XD

 

[GreenCoyote]

I am going to come back to your thread and check these painters out cause I am currently making something with lots of symbols. I love um. I design my own all the time.

there is a certain style and composition to mine that feels particular.

 

[MissNobody]

Wow! I just checked out those artists, amazing work! There is so much going on visually.

 

[penchant]

My taste of visual art is a tad to conservative for that - I'm more of a realist. But I can see why others are attracted to it. :happy:

 

[mllesentiment]

My taste of visual art is a tad to conservative for that - I'm more of a realist. But I can see why others are attracted to it. :happy:

Tell me my good man, do you fancy yourself some neoclassicism or romanticism? You could never go wrong with David, or Eugene DelaCroix. :wink:

 

[SarahWilliams]

I had never seen those artists before! Love it!

(ps, I also love the phrase 'conservative bohemians' I would consider us that. Sometimes I feel like I don't belong with Artists, or with the more straightlaced types. Somewhere in the middle. I like structure and logic, but I also like creativity and playing in human emotions....)

 

[MissNobody]

Gustav Klimt is also a favourite of mine. I think he is a symbolist painter :laughing:

 

[Linus]

I've taken art history classes before but we never reached this movement for some reason, although we talk about romanticism, art nouveau etc. They seem like they happened around the same time --Toorop's work has strong similarities to Klimt
Do you have any specific books or online sources you could recommend on this subject? Personally I relate more to expressionism, I tend to not like to use symbols.. Rather it's more about meanings said through specific colour palette, brushstrokes, medium of choice. To the point where I don't even use -form- anymore, completely abandoned it a few years ago due to frustration and my work is more spare or broken down like Agnes Martin or Josef Albers. Though I find Odilon's expressive like this too, whom I'm a fan of and other symbolist painters.
At times I feel symbolist work is so hard to get, it can be so personal and closed, so all I focus on is the visual aspect.. But I imagine it must be very therapeutic for the maker. Thank you for making this interesting thread =)

 

[penchant]

Tell me my good man, do you fancy yourself some neoclassicism or romanticism? You could never go wrong with David, or Eugene DelaCroix. :wink:

OK. I'm probably about to contradict myself now. :happy:

I adhere to a minimalist philosophy when it comes to stuff in general, and Delacroix is to intense for me. I think I appreciate art more on the use of light and concept than on details or use of color. So, basically minimalist in a sense yes, but romanticism as long as it isn't to heavy. Think J. M. W. Turner... I probably could've like the impressionists if I didn't dislike their technique so much. I think they are trying to capture, exactly what I'm looking for, just not expressing it in a way I find appealing. Neoclassicism, I could admire for the technique, but it would bore me after a while. I suppose it's to realistic for me. Yes, I'm picky.

 

[MissNobody]

OK. I'm probably about to contradict myself now. :happy:

I adhere to a minimalist philosophy when it comes to stuff in general, and Delacroix is to intense for me. I think I appreciate art more on the use of light and concept than on details or use of color. So, basically minimalist in a sense yes, but romanticism as long as it isn't to heavy. Think J. M. W. Turner... I probably could've like the impressionists if I didn't dislike their technique so much. I think they are trying to capture, exactly what I'm looking for, just not expressing it in a way I find appealing. Neoclassicism, I could admire for the technique, but it would bore me after a while. I suppose it's to realistic for me. Yes, I'm picky.

J.M.W.Turner is one of my faves. I also love the impressionists because it's as if they have captured the 'essence' or the "aura" of the scene they are painting through their use of colour and light.

I have a hard time when it comes to minimalist or modern art. I find that boring. To me most of it is just a bunch of colour shapes put together to create an interesting composition. I don't find it memorable at all. For me they just look like some sort of interior design, something to brighten up your living space.

I suppose I like paintings that have something in them that I can recognise like a person or a landscape. In my creative writing class next week we will be discussing conceptial art so it will be interesting to hear what opinions people have.

 

[mllesentiment]

I've taken art history classes before but we never reached this movement for some reason, although we talk about romanticism, art nouveau etc. They seem like they happened around the same time --Toorop's work has strong similarities to Klimt
Do you have any specific books or online sources you could recommend on this subject? Personally I relate more to expressionism, I tend to not like to use symbols.. Rather it's more about meanings said through specific colour palette, brushstrokes, medium of choice.

You definitely need to try your local library (maybe a college one**) if you'd like to get more info on the movement. It's a small movement. People sort of remember the literature that came out of it more than the art, and it's often over shadowed by others. So I don't have any specific book recommendations for the movement itself, however simply googling the artist you'd like to focus on usually brings good results and are much easier to find in a library. We learned that understanding an artist's work and the context in which they made it is mostly based on understanding the artist himself. For instance I think Redon and Toorop are my kindred spirits. The child who loves science and nature is in one and the one who clings to her faith and has visions of spirits and demons is in the other. Anyways, I digress. Oh but if you like expressionism....James Ensor??? ya ya ?? I can write an essay on that man...

 

[Linus]

Oh Ensor.. I don't like his style *blush* but thanks for suggesting. I'm more into the ideas of the Expressionist movement but the work itself produced in this period, I like some pieces but not all..It's more about the way the artists expressed themselves that I'm into, the way the lines are made, the choice of colour. Die Brücke's Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, Kirchner. Kokoschka. There's also Edvard Munch, who is labeled as symbolist too.

Expressionism was opposed to academic standards that had prevailed in Europe and emphasized artist's subjective emotion, which overrides fidelity to the actual appearance of things. The subjects of expressionist works were frequently distorted, or otherwise altered. Landmarks of this movement were violent colors and exaggerated lines that helped contain intense emotional expression. Application of formal elements is vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic. Expressionist were trying to pinpoint the expression of inner experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, seeking to depict not objective reality but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in them.

So... this doesn't have to be tied down in one point in time. When I answered your question I was thinking about the approach I take with the work I produce myself, but for art by others I can develop a liking to any movement or style, it's just about the focus of the work that I'm drawn to.

When making art, I've always felt a bit lost with painting and drawing, thinking of what should I draw.. Does anyone feel the same? So, interesting that you bring this topic up now, because I'm currently getting reacquainted with this part of myself, and looking to also create my own 'language' of inventive creatures and environments like Odilon Redon At the moment I look toward my nightly dreams, and forming a kind of dream journal --I remember reading the psychologist Carl Jung also did this, to get in touch with his psyche, things he might have repressed.. It's called the Red Book (link here). The funny thing is that after a couple of weeks, I notice how 'realistic' my dreams are XD... They are not strange at all. They happen in a world that looks like the one I'm in when I'm awake. Ugh!

At the moment I'm actually in recluse mode lol, but maybe I can buy a book off of Alibris or something for more research XD Also if anyone has any ideas of developing personal imagery, I would be interested to know. Right now I'm searching through art therapy books because they also use symbolism when working with patients

 

[mllesentiment]

^ Omigosh that red book is beautiful!!!! I get what you mean about not knowing what to draw. I'm a bit of an artist myself and I feel that I draw my best right before I sleep and I have nothing on my mind but the sounds of my whimsically melancholic music. Also when any image pops into my head, whether it makes any sense or not, I put it in my little sketchbook and maybe blog about it later. I get what you mean about dreams being too realistic XD. Happens to me when I'm stressed out because of school or when I get very little sleep. Good luck with your dream journal though, I'd say record anything even if it doesn't seem 'dreamy'. They'll start to get fantastical soon enough

 

[MKMason]

I'm an INFJ artist, and I find symbolist painting to be very appealing. Do you think INFJ's would generally be attracted to the work of Der Blaue Reiter (Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, etc.) or Marc Chagall?