A Brief Symbolist Bibliography by Bill Palmer
Bill Palmer
roots of surrealist art, but others may not be. What
originally surprised me (when I happened upon symbolist
art a few years back) was that while a standard art
textbook dealing with historical movements often goes
from romanticism to impressionism (and then perhaps
post-impressionism) to surrealism, it would be more
accurate to draw a line from romanticism to symbolism
to surrealism, since symbolist influences are far more
readily identifiable in surrealism than are impressionist
influences. (If you want to learn more about the way
symbolism and impressionism more or less competed during
the same time period, with impressionism winning out for
one-hundred years or so, read my "Symbolism: A Century
of Neglect" in Dejanews.)
Anyway, for surrealism scholars and enthusiasts who
may have an interest in the symbolist roots of surrealism,
I am reposting my revised "A Brief Symbolist Bibliography".
I posted the original on 10 April, 1995, and I have added
three newer works in this update.
[Please don't ask me for prices and availability. I have no
idea which volumes are currently in print or how much you
will need to pay if you want to buy them. I have not done
a recent Amazon.com or a Barnes and Noble.com search, since
you can do that as effectively as I can, I think. What is
or is not available and how a book costs changes frequently
anyway, so it's not actually material to this bibliography.]
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A Brief Symbolist Bibliography by Bill Palmer
(First posted 10 April, 1995)
1) Lost Paradise: Symbolist Art in Europe; Therberge, Pierre,
et al.; The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Montreal, Quebec; 1995;
558 pages, hardcover; profusely illustrated throughout. (ISBN
2-89192-194-1)
Perhaps the most luxurious volume on symbolist art ever published,
this book came about as an accompaniment to the major symbolist
exhibition of 1995. It contains a great many illustrations not
found in other books on symbolism and even includes a section on
symbolist photography. It is organized around essays dealing
with various aspects of symbolism and contributed by an impressive
number of the world's top experts in the field.
2) L'univers symboliste: Fin de siecle et decadence; Pierre,
Jose; Editions Aimery Somogy, Paris; 1991; 406 pages, hardcover;
includes many color reproductions. (ISBN 2-85056-200-9)
For people who don't read French, this book may not be the
best choice. However, it does contain a great many helpful
illustrations of excellent quality (though, for my taste, the
pictures are often, but not always, disappointingly small).
Despite this book's drawbacks, students and symbolist art
enthusiasts might want to check it out anyway, so I have
included it. The text is scholarly and exhaustive, and
would be well worth exploring for many. I hope this
work will eventually be translated into English.
3) Symbolism; Gibson, Michael; Taschen; Cologne, Germany,
1995; 256 Pages, hardcover (a paperback version is also
available); profusely illustrated. (ISBN 3-8228-9324-2)
As a result of mass marketing by the mammoth Taschen
art book publisher, this edition is probably the
easiest well-illustrated book on symbolist art to find
(and the least expensive to buy, compared with others also
featuring lavish illustrations). This work, by the way,
is completely different from Gibson's "The Symbolists"
(listed below). As with Gibson's other work, however,
the text of this volume is entertaining and informative.
Gibson follows the common "symbolism country-by-country"
pattern of organization (which can become tiresome after
you have read several books organized the same general
way).
4) The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism; Cassou, Jean;
Chartwell Books; Secaucus, New Jersey, 1979; 292 Pages,
hardcover; 365 illustrations, 138 in color.
(ISBN 0-89009-706-2)
This book provides a most helpful source of information
on the symbolist movement. It consists of an alphabetical
listing of entries, not only on symbolist artists, but
on major symbolist figures in other fields, such as
music and literature. Because of the compact size of
the edition, the illustrations are too small to give
a reader much satisfaction, but they are nonetheless
helpful in imparting some knowledge of an artist's
style and a picture's content.
5) Symbolist Art (World Art Series); Lucie-Smith,
Edward; Thames and Hudson Limited; London, England;
1988; 216 pages, paperback; 185 illustrations, 24
in color. (ISBN 0-500-20125-0)
An excellent paperback introduction to symbolism, its
roots and its influences upon other movements. The
scope of this book is quite broad in terms of pin-
pointing a variety of cultures where symbolism had
its origins. As with the "Concise Encyclopedia",
one drawback is that the illustrations--though
well-chosen and instructional--are often too
small to be very pleasing, at least for my taste.
6) The Symbolists; Julian, Philippe; Phaidon Press
Ltd., London, England; 1974; 240 pages, hardcover;
213 illustrations, 49 in color. (ISBN 0-7148-1590-X)
The author is a distinguished scholar on the subject
of 19th Century art. The book has a unique format.
It begins with 56 pages of text, presenting Julian's
overview of, and theories on, the Symbolist movement.
The picture section which follows is presented, to
quote from the dust jacket, "...as a tour of an
imaginary museum of Symbolist art..." This is
a seminal work on the history and significance
of symbolism. If anyone published an English-text
volume solely on the subject of symbolist art before
Julian, I have yet to find any record of it.
7.) Symbolists and Symbolism; Delevoy, Robert L.;
Rizzoli International Publications (Skira); New York,
New York; 1982; 220 Pages, paperback; 311 illustrations,
83 in color. (ISBN 0-8478-1218-9)
The text of this book is scholarly and highly informational,
to the extent that only one on the list which goes beyond
it as far as featuring an exhaustive text is the French
"L'universe Symboliste". Along with Delevoy's symbolist
theories and his history of the movement, this work contains
a variety of fascinating and well-chosen quotations from
Symbolist writings from the fin de siecle period when
symbolism flourished. The illustrations are uniformly
well-selected, too, and quite a few of them are not found
in other books on the subject.
8) The Symbolist Generation; Mathieu, Pierre-Louis;
Rizzoli International Publications (Skira); New York,
New York; 1990; 220 pages, hardcover; many high quality
color reproductions. (ISBN 0-8478-1218-9)
Mathieu's text present readers with an excellent overview
of symbolism from 1970 to 1910. The author has won acclaim
as a leading authority in the field. He does a commendable
job of putting the movement in perspective while discussing
many of the great symbolist artists in a lively fashion.
Furthermore, this book is one of the best I've seen when
it comes to high-quality reproductions.
9) The Symbolists; Gibson, Michael; Harry N. Abrams;
New York, New York; 1988; 199 pages, hardcover; 391
illustrations, including 54 hand-tipped plates in full
color. (ISBN 0-8109-1516-2)
Quoting from the dust jacket, "These artists and their
evocative, sometimes bizarre creations are here explored
in depth..." and, "The text, rich in anecdote and analysis
of individual works, takes full account of the cultural,
social, and art-historical context of symbolism..." This
volume does in fact bear out those promises. Further,
the illustrated plates make the book one of the best
for allowing readers to visually enjoy some key symbolist
creations (only as much as an excellent book illustration
of an original artwork will permit, of course).
Andrea Chen
It's good to see you in this group. I was wondering if you would be
kind enough to repost "Exploding Bill Palmers" to show the surrealist
(mind altering) capacities of the net. Hope you'll post lots of stuff
here.