Closed Eyes 1894

Editor: Here we have Odilon Redon's "Closed Eyes" from 1894. It's a pastel drawing that depicts a figure with, well, closed eyes! The overall effect is dreamlike and very calming. What’s your interpretation of it? Art Historian: Redon’s Symbolist works like this one actively rejected the dominant Realist aesthetic in 19th century France. Can you see how it pulls away from a true depiction of the real world? Instead it favours emotional and spiritual states of being. Editor: Yes, the subject’s skin has this unreal blue tone and she seems lost in thought. So, the work might engage in issues and problems by using imagery, symbolism, and myth. Art Historian: Exactly. Think about the context in which Redon created this. He belonged to an artistic milieu seeking an escape from industrialisation. In the late 19th century, artists tried to engage with subjective and interior experience as subject matter for public display. Is this painting inherently political, though? Editor: It feels pretty removed from direct political engagement! The dreamlike state almost seems like escapism. But maybe just representing inner life was a political act in itself? A new way to show what art could be, which means that anyone can express their own experiences as artistic engagement. Art Historian: That's a very astute observation! By legitimizing subjective experiences on public display, the symbolists paved the way for later movements that tackled other topics that were often repressed from cultural consideration. It broadened our understanding of what constitutes "art" and who gets to create it. Editor: I hadn’t thought about it that way, viewing it as opening art to different modes of expression! Thank you. Art Historian: My pleasure.