25-A101 Idols of the Macabre: The Symbolist Obsession with Femmes Fatales – Sandy Gunderson

Time travel to the late 1890s: an astonishing number of painters throughout Europe and North America are suddenly producing sensual and often terrifying images of women. Mythological goddesses, aquatic sirens or voluptuous vamps; a shocking number have religious affiliations. All are decadent and deadly. Welcome to the Symbolist Movement, which began as a literary movement fueled by the likes of Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe and Richard Wagner. Its focus was on dreams, fantasy, eroticism and the macabre. What did these geographically separated artists share in common and why were they so consistent in their fascination with the frenetic, occasionally hysterical, “New Woman” and her insatiable thirst for power? This visually dynamic course presents an array of Symbolist artists and their fin de siècle (turn-of-the-century) femmes fatales. It concludes by uncovering two distinct legacies of the Symbolist New Woman: a) their contemporary 20th and 21st century equivalents (who continue to lurk amongst us), and, b) an even darker body politic: The 1930s New Man and his will to power. All art lovers and learners welcome!
Instructor: Sandy Gunderson

Sandy Gunderson is a spirited and consummate art historian, educator, photographer and interior designer with a contagious passion for creative expressions that reveal the soul of human experience. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alberta she completed a Master’s degree in the History of Art, Architecture and Design. For 30 years her extensive world travels and research of art and architecture, ranging from the first Paleolithic cave paintings to the end of the 20th century, have captivated and inspired audiences of all ages. She loves to offer dynamic visual presentations that enable time travel throughout various artistic eras, exploring religious, cultural and political beliefs that shaped the production of art and architecture throughout the western world. Since 1986 Sandy has avidly pursued her second passion—diving and underwater photography—capturing the technicolored oceanic world created by the greatest artist of all: Mother Nature.