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Redon, Odilon - Les Noirs 1
Identifier
008018
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The two drawing are
- Cactus man 1882 and
- Madness 1883
The dates are the dates of publication, not execution.
From the indications, Redon appears to feel he went through a sort of rebirth as a result of the war experiences and the deaths of so many of his loved ones.
Although I have added the symbol of the cap and bells, Redon's use of it is wonderful. He has bells but no tunnels! In other words he felt completely cut off from the spiritual world - black here indicating a kind of masculine spiritual desert of horror, but he was still getting the noises in his head.
The collar and ruff he uses is also wonderful symbolically, as it shows the opposite of what one would want - all the sensations of the body are being directed upward, he is getting no peace from his body.
Behind is the closed door - the door to perception is closed.
A description of the experience
