Death and suffering part of exhibition on Belgian symbolism art

This is "The Melancholy Fishwives," an oil painting by the Belgian artist James Ensor.

It was finished in 1892, a relative prosperous time in Europe.

But as history would show, in just a few years, two World Wars would hit the continent.

The two fishwives are calmly chatting, but just above them three skulls peer in from the window.

In the exhibition 'Decadence and Dark Dreams: Belgian Symbolism' at the Alte Nationalgalerie in the German capital Berlin, death is never far away.

"It is an attempt to approach the existential issues: love, death, illness and passion," says Ralph Gleis, curator of the exhibition.

"And all this morbid charm, which was particularly evident in Belgian art, also comes with a bit of black humour."

Symbolist art movement

The symbolist art movement was strong in France, Belgium and Russia in the 19th century.

It attempted to show the reality of the world, with all its beauty but also all its suffering.

In many ways it was the antithesis of the other, more famous art movement of the time.

"Symbolism is the art movement at the end of the 19th century that is less known than impressionism and post-impressionism – the dominant art developments on the way to modernity," says Gleis.

"The symbolists of that time, who were less interested in the beauty of the atmosphere with colour and light than their impressionist colleagues, were dealing with the inner life of the soul."

'Jealousy'

The Belgian symbolists did inspire other artists, such as the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch.

His painting 'Jealousy' is being shown at the exhibition as an example of a painting that can be traced back to the symbolist art movement a few decades earlier.

"Symbolism is actually an art movement that had an impact on the 20th century. It was an important trailblazer for many other artistic positions in the modern era, such as expressionism and surrealism," says Gleis.

The exhibition, which takes up a whole floor of the museum, was planned long before the coronavirus pandemic hit the world.

But now it is quite suited to this very particular, and often worrying time, says Gleis.

"The exhibition is actually more relevant now than we thought when we started working on it. Because now with the discussions of corona and the whole impact of the pandemic, people are much more focused on themselves again. People are reflecting more about themselves. That is a key to the symbolistic art, that the personal life of the person is at the center of the art," he says.

'Decadence and Dark Dreams: Belgian Symbolism' runs through January 17 2021.