Les Noirs of Odilon Oracle

Author(s) : Pauline A., Bruno K.
Publisher : Mysiic

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Item Number: 09787
Details:
This lithographic work can be divided into two main categories: Separate Pieces and Albums. The separate pieces, designed without any relation to one another, each stand completely on their own. The Albums, on the other hand, are intimately connected entities of which the various parts constitute an organized whole.

In creating the deck’s logo, we were inspired by the cover of the album Songes (Dreams). Its typography is drawn from an aesthetic of curved lines and arabesques in the Art Nouveau style, an artistic movement of the late 19th century.

Art Nouveau is inspired by nature. Shimmering floral shapes elegantly unfurl on the black backs of the cards through the technique of Hot Stamping.

The structure and energy of our oracle follows the artist's evolution from lithographic stone to his new orientation towards color. You will find in the visuals below a selection of plates from the following separate pieces and albums: Dans le Rêve (In the Dream), A Edgar Poë (To Edgar Allan Poe), Les Origines (The Origins), Hommage à Goya (Homage to Goya), Profil de Lumière (Profil of Light), La Nuit (The Night), Brunnhilde (Brünnhilde), L'Araignée (Spider), Le Juré (The Juror), Tentation de Saint-Antoine 1ère série (The Temptation of Saint Anthony; 1st series), A Gustave Flaubert (Tentation de Saint-Antoine 2ème série) (To Gustave Flaubert; 2nd series of The Temptation of Saint Anthony), Pégase Captif II (Captive Pegasus), Les Flambeaux Noirs (The Black Torches), Serpent-Auréole (Serpent-Halo), Songes (Dreams), Parsifal (Parsifal), Druidesse (Druid Priestess), Le Liseur (The Reader), L'Aile (The Wing), Lumière (Light), Hantise I (Obsession), Le Buddha (The Buddha), Tentation de Saint-Antoine 3ème série (The Temptation of Saint Anthony; 3rd series), Vieux Chevalier (Old Knight), La Maison Hantée (The Haunted House) and Apocalypse de Saint-Jean (The Revelation of St. John the Divine).

In order to make the deck easier to understand, the cards can be classified into different groups that represent a harmonious whole: earthly experiences, nature and celestial bodies, interpersonal relationships and archetypes. An additional group: Jung’s four psychological functions are illustrated by the four elements, as well as psychic energy: introversion and extraversion, which are illustrated by two of Redon’s works in color. For the whole person, the mystery of human nature is sensation (earth), thinking (fire), feeling (water) and creative intuition (air).

Each card reflects positive and negative aspects, strengths and weaknesses that reveal themselves as they come into contact with other cards during a divinatory or psychological spread.

Our oracle comes with a guidebook that will be available in French and English. This companion book will include a biography of the artist, deck instructions, interpretations of the cards and keywords, oracle card spreads, and an appendix listing the titles, numbers and dimensions of the original lithographs. We do not pretend to have unraveled the mysteries of this body of work. As Mellerio says: "It is not easy to penetrate Odilon Redon’s secret depths." However, we have studied this artist with immense pleasure and great fascination.

The card "Le Soleil Noir" black sun is associated with the strange rays of the Apocalypse Sun. This cosmic figure is special because it relates to alchemical symbolism. But it also represents a scientific idea of the time (late 19th century) which imagined the disappearance of the solar system. This was mentioned in particular by Camille Flammarion in his book: Omega: The Last Days of the World. This black sun is present in the work of artist Albrecht Dürer: Melencolia, as well as in the poem El Desdichado by Gérard de Nerval "Bears the black Sun of Melancolia." Other authors of poetry and romantic literature such as Victor Hugo and Théophile Gautier took up this theme, which is also found in Edgar Allan Poe.

Each oracle deck now includes the following features:

- 44 Cards Large Format (88mm x 127mm) + 6 Extra Cards
- Thick Art Paper Cards 400gsm FSC with Rose Petal-Texture & Black Edges
- Black Art Collector Box with magnetic closure & ribbon
- Gold & Black Hot Stamping on cards, guidebook & box
- PDF Guidebook ENG/FR Version
- 1x Art Print
- 1x Eco-friendly Pouch
- 1x Mini hand-carved Black Obsidian Skull

About the Artist:

Bertrand-Jean Redon, known as Odilon, in reference to his mother Odile, was born on April 20, 1840 in Bordeaux. He had a fragile nature and spent his childhood at the family estate of Peyrelebade, in the Médoc. The wild and austere nature of the Médoc landscape, between moor and marshland, deeply marked his imagination and his work.

The first part of his artistic career is devoted to the Noirs series, made mainly in charcoal, for which he draws inspiration from the meanderings of his unconscious. Before 1870, Redon met Rodolphe Bresdin, an engraver and lithographer who introduced him to engraving and the cult of Rembrandt. But above all, Bresdin encouraged Redon in his search for a personal art, independent of official trends, even at the risk of being misunderstood. It was around 1878 that Redon began producing works using this technique. Its initial purpose was clearly stated in a letter to André Mellerio in 1898: "... I can tell you why I did lithography: it was because before, I had tried in vain to publish in the Salon officiel the many charcoals that I had sketched and that were lying dormant in my boxes. So I made my first lithographs to reproduce my charcoal drawings." Redon, a disciple of Bresdin's, is deeply grateful to him for this discovery, as seen in The Reader from 1892 (see oracle card wise old man), a moving portrait in the Rembranesque manner. It shows the master lit by the light from the window, the chiaroscuro inviting us not to disturb the one who lifts up his thoughts alone. It was mainly through his lithographs that Redon, before 1894, became known to the public and came to be appreciated by a group of amateurs. The artist later abandoned lithography along with charcoals. In 1897, trials of color plates announced he was moving in a new direction.

Odilon Redon had a cultivated mind, nourished by theater, literature, music, opera and botany. Throughout his life, he surrounded himself with remarkable thinkers: Joris-Karl Huysmans, Stéphane Mallarmé, Emile Verhaeren, André Gide, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy. His passion for literature spurred him to illustrate books such as The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire and The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert.

Volume/Weight/Size: 50 cards, 8.9 x 12.7cm
Price: $680 HKD
VIP Member Price: $612 HKD
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