ymbols and ymbolism

Art and Symbolism

    Art bibliography -- Color & light bibliography

 Symbolism in Art:   When someone mentions symbols, the first thing most people think about are visual representations.  While not all symbols are graphics, much less graphic art, art is the field to which we too easily and readily relegate "symbols."  Many who study symbols would prefer to designate "semiotics" as the field of study for symbols and meaning.  Thus, in relating art and symbolism, one might think that this essay might focus on the artistic criticism of symbolic representations.  However, there is also the perspective that understanding symbolism brings to criticizing art and art movements.  I am also including collections of graphics which may contain symbolic representations.

  One of Jung's disciples, Aniela Jaffé, contrasted symbols and abstract art by saying, "The symbol is an object of the known world hinting at something unknown; it is the known expressing the life and sense of the inexpressible.  But in merely abstract paintings, the world of the known has completely vanished.  Nothing is left to form a bridge to the unknown." (Jaffé, Symbolism in the Visual Arts, 310) This only highlights what Wassily Kandinsky, an early theorist of abstract art, feared (Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 47), namely, that abstract would become simply decorative.  Thus you have Picasso and Dali, with their symbolic styles and/or symbol-filled paintings that challenge the values of the viewer.  But then contrast these with the emptiness of meaning in Pollack and Miro, where color is all that matters, either random or organized.  What all these seem to be asking, psychologists and artists alike, is, "Does art mean  anything to most people, or is it meaningless except as 'expresssion'?"  This question, itself, seems to recycle upon itself.  Is "expression", in and of itself, meaningful?  Or does meaningful, by definition, require the probablility of communication, the sharing of expression by the originator and intended audience?  (See Norbert Weiner, 21, Weiner, 92.)  To those who understand and accept the values of symbols, the latter is the only acceptable meaning of symbols. 

  One of the rare attempts to cover all aspects of graphic representation is Adrian Frutiger's Signs and Symbols:  Their Design and Meaning (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989), translated by Andrew Bluhm.  Frutiger, listed on the back cover as "Linotype's master typographer," has created 3 books in one.  In the first "part", the author describes the elements of a sign, beginning at the basic "dot" and progressing through the attempt to represent three dimensional objects.  In this section, he delves into both artistic and psychological principles in describing the processes of creation and perception.  The second "part" covers written communication, from the basic thought to picture then through pictogram to writing to typeforms, including numbers and punctuation.  Having dealt with his forté in part 2, part 3 delves into other meaningful marks, whether signs, symbols, or signals, and how they transfer meaning to the observer.  In summing up the hundreds of pages and thousands of illustrations in his book, Frutiger concludes, "Signs, symbols, emblems, and signals, in all their diversity, are penetrating and deeply marking expressions of our times, pointing to the future by comprising and conserving something of the past." (Signs and Symbols, 359) 

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•   Cirlot, J. E. (Juan Eduardo).  A Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed.  Translated by Jack Sage from Diccionario de Símbolos Tradicionales.  New York:  Philosophical Library, 1971.  419 pp.; 0-8022-2083-5    [HK252] BF1623.S9C513 1971b. 
•   Evans, Joan.  Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1976; originally published Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1922.  264 pp., 0-486-23367-7  [PK255].
•   Ferguson, George.  Signs & Symbols in Christian Art.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 1954; paperback, 1961.  192 pp. + 112 plates; 0-19-501432-4.  [PP219] N7830.F37 1961b. 
•   Fontana, David.  The Secret Language of Symbols:  A Visual Key to Symbols and Their Meanings.  San Francisco:  Chronicle Books, 1993.  192pp.; also available in a standard sized paperback with 320 pp, 2003; 0-8118-0462-3.    [PO201/PQ301] BF458.F56 1994. 
•   Foster, Mary LeCron, and Botscharow, Lucy Jayne, eds.  The Life of Symbols. Boulder: Westview Press, 1990.  318 pp.  P99.L53 1990.  §: 4.
  Contents:  "The Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Symbolizing," Catherine M. Borchert and Adrienne L. Zihlman; "The Origin of counting: A Rethinking of Upright Posture," Maxine Sheets-Johnstone; "Paleolithic Semiotics: Behavioral Analogs to Speech in Acheuleuan Sites," Lucy Jayne Botscharow; "Red Ochre in the Paleolithic", Joseph Velo and Alice B. Kehoe; "Philosophy and the Corpse: Modes of Disposal and Their Cultural Correlates," Slawoy Szynkiewicz; "'Neolithic' Patterns of Face Representation: A Neuro-Evoilutionary Ecological Study," Anneliese A. Pontius; "Cognitive Cores and Flint Flakes," Robert L. Hall; "Corralling Life," Thomas F. Kehoe; "Representation of Movement in Upper Paleolithic Figurative Art," Germaine Prudhommeau; "Symbols and Sacred Images of Old Europe," Marija Gimbutas; "A Neolithic Sign System in Southeastern Europe," Shan M. M. Winn; 'The Birth and Life of Signs," Mary LeCron Foster. 

    Frutiger, Adrian.  Signs and Symbols:  Their Design and Meaning, translated by Andrew Bluhm.  New York:  Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.  360 pp.    P99F78 1989

    Gibson, Clare.  Signs & Symbols:  An Illustrated Guide to Their Meaning and Origins.  New York:  Barnes & Nobles, s.d.; Originally published, Saraband Inc., 1996.    160 pp.; 0-7607-0217-9.    [HP086] AZ108.G52 1996. 

    Jaffé, Aniela.  "Symbolism in the Visual Arts," in:  Jung, C. G., ed.  Man and His Symbols.  London:  Aldus Books, 1964.    [PK310] BF173 .J735 1964b. 

    Kandinsky, Wassily.  Concerning the Spiritual in Art.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1977.  Originally published as The Art of Spiritual Harmony.  London:  Constable & Co., 1914.  Translated by M.T.H. Sadler.  57pp., 0-486-23411-8.    [PM006] N68 .K33 1977. 

    Koch, Rudolf.  The Book of Signs:  Which Contains All Manner of Symbols Used from the Earliest Times to the Middle Ages by Primitive Peoples and Early Christians.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1955; reprint of publication of the First Edition Club of London, 1930.  Translation by Vyvyan Holland.  104 pp.; 0-486-20162-7.    [PK254] AZ108.K62 1955. 

    Lucie-Smith, Edward.  Symbolist Art.  London:  Thames and Hudson, 1972.  216 pp.;0-500-20125-0.    [PO047].

    Olderr, Steven, comp.  Symbolism:  A Comprehensive Dictionary.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 1986.  153 pp.; 0-89950-187-7 (hdbk); 0-7864-2127-4 (pbk).  CB475.O38 1986. 

    ____________, comp.  Reverse Symbolism Dicitonary:  Symbols Listed by Subject.  Jefferson, NC:  McFarland, 1992.  181 pp.; 0-89950-561-9.  [HO159] CB475 .O37 1992. 

    Packer, Sharon.  Dreams in Myth, Medicine, and Movies.  Westport, CT:  Praeger, 2002.  235 pp., 0-275-97243-7.  BF1078.P28 2002. 

    Sill, Gertrude Grace.  A Handbook of Symbols in Christian Art  New York:  Collier Bks, 1975.  241 pp.;0-02-000850-3.    [PO206] N8010.S54. 

    Speltz, Alexander.  The Styles of Ornament.  New York:  Dover Publications, 1959.  Translation by David O'Connor.  647 pp.; 0-486-20557-6    [PQ438] 

    Thompson, Philip, and Davenport, Peter.   The Dictionary of Graphic Images.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1980.    BF458.T45 1980

Studies in color & light

  See also in the chapter on "Psychology":

•   Balfour-Paul, Jenny.  Indigo in the Arab World.  Richmond, Surrey:  Curzon Press, 1997.  283pp., 0-7007-0373-X.  TP923.B35 1997.
•   Birren, Faber.  The Symbolism of Color.  Secaucus, NJ:  Citadel Press, 1988.  177 pp.  BF1623.C6B53 1988.
•   Greenfield, Amy Butler.  A Perfect Red:  Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.  New York:  HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.  338pp., 0-06-052275-5.  TP925.C63G74 2004. 
•   Roberts, Allen F.  "Symbolism:  Color Terms," pp. 200-203..  Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara, IV.  New York:  Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997.  4 vols., 0-684-80466-2.  DT351.E53 1997.
•   Robins, Gay.  "Color Symbolism," pp. 291-294.  The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, I.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2001.  3 vols., 0-19-510234-7.  DT58.O94 2001. 

Also check most entries in the chapter on "Mythology."

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