Symbolist and Aesthetic Movements

Late nineteenth-century movements that turned away from realist observation toward suggestion, symbol and art for its own sake: symbolism's use of image and symbol over direct statement, and aestheticism's doctrine that beauty, not moral or social use, justifies a work of art. Belongs here: a movement defined by this turn against realist and utilitarian aims. Does not belong here: the early twentieth-century avant-garde movements that followed and radicalized this turn, tracked under their own group below.