Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892–1897 at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, through October 4, 2017
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“The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Mystical Symbolism: The Salon de la Rose+Croix in Paris, 1892–1897, the first museum exhibition on this revelatory and significant yet frequently overlooked series of Salons. Mysterious, mythical, and visionary themes, often drawn from literature, prevailed in the art of the six exhibitions, which were held annually in Paris from 1892 to 1897. Images of femmes fragiles and fatales, androgynous creatures, chimeras, and incubi were the norm, as were sinuous lines, attenuated figures, and anti-naturalistic forms. Featuring highlights from the Salons, the Guggenheim exhibition will include approximately forty works by a cross section of artists—some familiar, others less so—and invite a fresh look at and new scholarship on the legacies of late nineteenth-century Symbolist art.” — Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Ferdinand Hodler. The Disappointed Souls (Les âmes déçues), 1892. Oil on canvas, 120 x 299 cm. Kuntsmuseum Bern, Staat Bern. Photo: Courtesy Kuntsmuseum Bern, Staat Bern.
Armand Point. The Annunciation or Ancilla Domini (L’Annonciation), 1895. Tempera on panel, 99 x 51 cm. Private collection, courtesy Sotheby’s. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby’s.
Charles Maurin. The Dawn of Labor (L’aurore du travail), ca. 1891. Oil on canvas, 79 x 148 cm. Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne Métropole, France. Photo: Yves Bresson, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint Étienne Métropole, France.
Fernand Khnopff. I Lock My Door upon Myself, 1891. Oil on canvas, 72.7 x 141 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, Munich. Photo: bkp Bildagentur, Berlin/Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, Munich/Art Resource, New York.
Mystical Symbolism is organized by Vivien Greene, Senior Curator, 19th- and Early 20th-Century Art, with the assistance of Ylinka Barotto, Assistant Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Following its New York presentation, the exhibition will travel to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, from October 28, 2017–January 7, 2018.