Symbols In Art
Serge Polakoff
(Guest Reviewer - Christine Reilly Carter)
2003 Harmony 2000 Inc.
ISBN: 0972654925

The Hidden Keys To Love, Balance and Renewal.

“Symbols In Art provides a fascinating exploration into the meanings of symbols and provides keys for unlocking their real messages. It expands our awareness of love, balance and light in our lives and it directs us to visions of a brighter future.”

Associate Reviewer Christine Reilly Carter writes:

Serge Polakoff has selected & beautifully reproduced thirty examples of art created prior to & during the era of Symbolism in literature, music & art, approximately 1870-1910. The art is refreshingly varied. The reproductions create a framework for Polakoff to present his own art. ‘This book is a synthesis of universal symbols, symbolic paintings, and my own creative journey.’ (page 6)

Upon close examination, Symbols In Art presents itself as a psychology textbook rather than an art book. Polakoff's digital fine art, falls more appropriately into the genre of textbook illustrations, especially when accompanied by the maps he has created to explain the elements of his work. Though the back cover claims a formidable knowledge of modern art & symbolism, the author's explorations into the world of art began only ten years ago; during the first few he “deliberately [chose] neither to read art history books or meet other artists, nor to visit museums or art exhibitions.” (page 6)

Polakoff discounts the abstract expressionist movement as intellectually meaningless. Is he aware that many of the symbolist painters evolved toward abstraction, their symbolism becoming more obscure, complex, but not lost. Rothko might take offense to such a limited understanding of his art. Should the abstract expressionists have created maps to explain their work as Polakoff has done? I think not. Art is to be experienced before it is to be explained. Polakoff's background is in Civil Engineering & Psychology, which might explain his point of reference.

Polakoff is convincingly committed to his personal journey & seriously dedicated to his goal of moving toward a more balanced & peaceful existence. His work, reproduced throughout Symbols In Art, reveals a desire to understand the symbols in the paintings of the artists who came before him. He has not yet awakened the symbolism of his own being. He has chosen elements from representational Symbolist Art, & modeled them into flat graphic shapes, devoid of the strong emotional impact of the original art. Polakoff's ‘Yin and Yang Kissing’, a somewhat cold, clinical illustration for a parody of a magazine page from Cosmopolitan Magazine is coupled with Gustav Klimt's evocative, richly patterned painting ‘The Kiss’. Polakoff's ‘Subconscious Object’, a red rose on a purple background, looking very similar to clip art, is coupled with Ferdinand Hodler's ‘The Dream’, a painting powerful & complex in its serenity. ‘Withdrawal’, one of Polakoff's strongest graphic work is coupled with Edward Munch's ‘Madonna’, taking from it the “wide-eyed embryo .... a spermatozoa that came to life” (page 80) & isolating it from the female figure that “portrays Munch's fear of women while the fragile embryonic child poses existential questions about the meaning of life.” (page 80) Polakoff's own questions & his search for his own answers are not revealed in his work.

I found nothing in Symbols In Art to “serve as a road map for others for whom creativity, self-expression and a new world culture are paramount.” (page 6) I found no “keys to love, balance and renewal” (subtitle). I found only the definitions of specific symbols, i.e. terrestrial equines with webbed hooves representing strength & vitality in Walter Crane's ‘Neptune's Horses’ (page 15); the woman's shut eyes “symbolizing the connection between the conscious, isolated artist and his unconscious imagination” in Fernand Khnopff's ‘Caresses’ (page 35); “[p]oppies, symbolizing an altered state of mind” in Ferdinand Hodler's ‘The Dream’.

Had Polakoff pushed the limits of his own art for another ten years before writing Symbols In Art I believe there might be a greater audience for the book. Readers who prefer to have art explained to them prior to opening themselves to their own experience might enjoy this book, however, I feel it limits the reader's view & understanding of art rather than expands it. As a “personal artistic journey” (page 6) the book is a tour of the author's first steps. As a guide for others' personal journeys it is not.
(04/11/04)

Guest Reviewer - Christine Reilly Carter
2004©Christine Reilly Carter