Dreamwalker

At an early stage Odilon Redon (1840-1914) decided to turn his back on academic painting in order to experiment with other forms of expression. His teacher Rodolphe Bresdin (1822-1885) supported him in this matter. He introduced him into a world which actually maintained the outward appearances of nature but behind it gives the impression of a mysterious truth. Both created a phantasmagorial world inhabited by dream faces and visions, monsters and hermaphrodite creatures. Erotic and mystic visions from the subconscious appear in the pictures of both artists.

Although Bresdin and Redon regarded nature as a peaceful place in comparison to the city, in their works it is characterized by insecurity. Here – encoded and depicted in mysterious atmospheres – the anxieties of modern life are shown. The inhabitants of this world seem lost, mysterious, belligerent and sometimes even untouchable – they never are a stable element in this uncanny universe.

In Bordeaux, between 1864 and 1866, both men talked daily about art and together worked on lithographies and etchings – thus the »Noirs«, the black pictures, were developed of which some are on show in this exhibition. On these sheets figures and shapes are modelled in light and dark – in Bresdin's work they are caught in a finely spun net, in Redon's they pause in dreamy uncertainty. At this period both artists presented unknown possibilities to the graphic arts and thus became precursors of modernism.

Tickets