An important exhibition of Symbolist art held in 1969.

From the Exhibition Catalogue's Introduction:
"...one might say that by the 'eighties, European art could be divided roughly into three categories: the Impressionists who eventually triumphed with their pleasant bowls of fruit and sunny landscapes; the Salon painters, who saw themselves as the true inheritors of the great Renaissance tradition of literary painting; and the Symbolists.

The latter have been almost entirely overlooked because an indiscriminate public tends to throw them into the heap with the Salon painters and because, by the very nature of their art, their subjects of intricate referential themes and poetic allusions, are often hard to comprehend without some knowledge of the poetry and literature which inspired them.
...
In an epoch dominated by scientific research and empirical experiment, by social reform and political revolution, these artists turned from the clear, comforting light of day toward the mysterious, sometimes frightening darkness wherein resided myth, legend, nightmare and dream. They wished to recapture the spirit in art which knew both wonder and terror and took its gods as seriously as its devils and monsters."
(Mario Amaya)

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