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Odilon Redon (1840-1916) is one of the most amazing artists of emerging Modernism. Marking the threshold between the 19th and the 20th centuries, the art of this leading protagonist of French Symbolism shows the interaction between tradition and innovation. The exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, which brings together a large number of masterpieces, concentrates on Redon’s significance as a forerunner of Classic Modernism and therefore on his art’s avant-garde dimension. Characterised by caesura and contrasts, his ambivalent, enigmatic work evolves from the palette of blacks of his early charcoal drawings and lithographs to the explosive colourfulness of his later pastels and oil paintings. His works alternate between eeriness and serenity, featuring bizarre monsters as well as heavenly creatures and intermingling dream and nightmare, nature and imagination.