VIENNA, AUSTRIA.-BA-CA Kunstforum presents The Kiss of the Saphinx – Symbolism in Belgium, on view through February 2, 2008. “The essential attribute of symbolist art consists in never fixing or directly uttering an idea as a concept”, wrote the poet Jean Moréas in 1886 in his Manifeste du Symbolisme. The cradle of literary symbolism was in France and Belgium, and it was here, too, that symbolist painting was born. Its exponents were linked not only by the artistic manner of expression, but first and foremost by an intellectual attitude, in which the power of the imagination plays a key role. Symbolism is informed by the constant confrontation with the boundaries between reality, dream and doubt; with endurance and decay, with redemption and downfall. A close interconnection of poetry and the visual arts, the tendency towards the Gesamtkunstwerk – the total work of art – also characterise symbolism, which embraces painting, jewellery, works on paper, the decorative arts and furniture. Costly materials in the most consummate and elaborate workmanship, an elegant, linear language of forms and a melancholy and dreamy overall mood mark this art trend, which has such a close affinity to art nouveau.

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Jean Delville, Der Engel der Herrlichkeiten, 1894, Privatbesitz. © VBK, Wien, 2007/08