Semiotics of Symbolism

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The semiotics of symbolic objects represented within contemporary art

The practice of semiotics is concerned with how the representation of an entity engenders meaning, as well as the attributions and comprehensions of meaning which are generated. Symbolism, as a narrower field, is fulfilled by the use of semiotic analysis to confront the notion that an image or object can only depict a meaning intentionally thrust upon it by the creator, or that any entity within art can be absolutely objective, furthermore, that an articles meaning is of secondary importance to the individual elements of the piece. Thus through the use of semiotics numerous and fluctuating representational relationships are acknowledged and the integral role, individuals, the image or objects and culture and society play within understanding symbols within contemporary art.
The identification of the symbolist movement first occurred within literature and evolved to visual arts from the late 19th to early 20th century, at the same time, semiology was founded by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist; the linguistic science cited the proprieties of signs and symbols within social culture and the formality withheld to reveal structural meaning behind phenomena’s appearance. Furthermore, how an entity is studied to be relevant within a structures’ entirety, such that how the connotations of an object change the appearance or meaning of the piece of a whole, not just the singular article. Intrinsically, the denotation if the visual, furthered by the connotation of what values, notions and ideologies are represented and expressed within the way in which it is represented.
Symbolism, as expressed within the Symbolist manifesto is to metaphorically represent absolute truths. Jean Moréas alluded to an art in which all concrete phenomena cannot manifest themselves; but are sensible appearances to
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