Hieroglyffer, dansk og engelsk

Symbolismen var den fremherskende strømning i dansk kunst omkring 1900. Hos de kunstnere, der blev del af bruddet med naturalismen i 1890’erne, oplevede man en fornyet dyrkelse af tegnekunsten, og den formmæssige præcision i tidens billeder var påfaldende. Men hvad var hensigten med denne optagethed af veldefinerede plastiske og todimensionale former, detaljer og dekorative helhedsvirkninger? ”Hieroglyffer” søger svaret i periodens litteratur og hos kunstnere som bl.a. Vilhelm Hammershøi, L.A. Ring, J.F. Willumsen, Johannes Holbek og Jens Lund.
Symbolism was the prevailing new movement in Danish art around 1900. Among those artists who were part of the break away from naturalism in the 1890s, we find a renewed interest in the art of drawing, and the pictures of the era are characterised by a striking formal precision. But what was the deeper objective behind this keen interest in well-defined plastic and two-dimensional forms, details and decorative overall effects? Hieroglyphs seeks answers to this question in literature from the period and in artists such as Vilhelm Hammershøi, L.A. Ring, J.F. Willumsen, Johannes Holbek and Jens Lund.