And the shadows listen motionless… (review of collective work “Symbolism – New Perspectives”)

Abstract

Perhaps, the peer-reviewed collective work «Symbolism – New Perspectives” edited by I.E. Svetlov [7], has no analogues In Russian literature. It not only reconstructs the history of the painting of the symbolists in many, sometimes unexpected, angles. In this respect, it is unconditionally encyclopedic. Not only national schools and trends are analyzed. An impressive application is made to recreate the universal picture of the symbolic universe. The major experts, unique professionals involved in the creation of the book. The authors sought to avoid the narrow professionalism. They showed creativity of the largest masters of painting in close connection with history, philosophy, psychology. A unique panorama of European symbolic art is being reconstructed. At the beginning of the last century, K. Jaspers noted that compared to previous historical epochs, our time is extremely poor in symbols. In quantity, the symbols appear only in dreams, fantasies in reality, as well as in psychopathic states. Time has made significant adjustments to the reasoning of the famous philosopher. The symbol broke out into the cultural space and obtained a unique expression. Even psychopathic visions have acquired artistic value. The creative activity of the symbolists has received deep recognition.

Man at all times lived in symbols. They are the dominant reality of man. Since such existence in symbols belongs to the fundamental structures of human life, there is a desire to grasp symbols in all their originality, in their accumulation, analysis, comparative study. We can no longer approach to the symbols as alien, exotic forms, which, although not available to our understanding until the end, allow us to see in them the unique world of symbolic truth. In this case, we have at our disposal a vast world of constantly moving images, which represented the truth of the prototypes. Therefore, we must search for the basic elements – these unchanging, eternal elements of human awareness of reality. As a result, the systematics of symbols does not appear in the form of a classification of amazing, strange or for some reason worthy of special attention fantasies, but in the form of a fundamental scheme or plan that reflects the universal truth. The development of possible symbolic content means the opening of a space within which a person can become himself; on the other hand, being deprived of symbols, it can freeze in the void. Contemplating the subjective visual images embodied in art, we cannot be surprised at the sight of emerging from nothing figures, landscapes, people. Without revealing clear connections and seeing only random clusters of sometimes unconscious fragments, we are talking about random configurations. But the need for meaningful understanding is constantly pushing us to search for patterns or relationships.