Australian Symbolism

Overview

Currently showing at The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) is Australian Symbolism: The art of dreams, the first major exhibition devoted to exploring the impact that the Symbolists had on Australian art in the closing decades of the 19th century.

Symbolism was an art movement that took the mystical and mythological as its content: from the figure of the femme fatale, as in Bertram Mackennal’s brilliant bronze Circe (1892-3), to the iconic nymphs of Sydney Long’s dusk dances, in Pan (1898) and Spirit of the Plains (1897). This small collection of paintings, sculpture and ceramics is an accessible entry into the period and as such is perfect for the lunch-time drop in.

All the usual suspects are present – Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton, Rupert Bunny, Tom Roberts - although it is interesting to sight works by these artists (generally considered to be Impressionists) during their brief affairs with Symbolism. Streeton’s The Flight of Summer (c1890) is of particular interest as a stark departure from what we understand of Streeton’s work: a cigarette lies in the grass, the smoke leading our eyes to an emerging or departing female figure at the top centre of the board. Vibrant red berries are scattered across the panel - in content and colour this is a work nothing like Streeton’s realist landscapes. The Flight of Summer is an important work though, not so much for its aesthetic, but more so for the history its holds. The painting was only recently discovered and unravelled the incredible strands of a love affair between Streeton and a woman called Florry. Here, symbolism was an important tool for Streeton as the mythological and ethereal nature of the painting allowed Streeton to disguise his emotional turmoil. An act he could not easily carry out under the limitations of realist landscape painting.

Australian Symbolism is a gateway to a number of stories like Streeton's and, if only for this, the exhibition provides us with a rare view of some of the lesser known works of our most known artists.