ART nouveau

Introduction

Art Nouveau was an innovative international style of modern art that became fashionable from about 1890 to the First World War. Arising as a reaction to 19th-century designs dominated by historicism in general and neoclassicism in particular, it promulgated the idea of art as part of everyday life. Henceforth artists should not overlook any everyday object, no matter how functional it might be. This aesthetic was considered to be quite revolutionary and new, hence its name - New Art - or Art Nouveau.

Hence also the fact that it was applied to a host of different art forms including architecture, fine art, applied art, and decorative art. Rooted partly in the Industrial Revolution, and the Arts and Crafts Movement, but also influenced by Japonisme and Celtic designs, Art Nouveau was given a major boost by the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. After this, it spread across Europe and as far as the United States and Australia, under local names like Jugendstil (Germany), Stile Liberty (Italy), Sezessionstil (Austria) and Tiffany style (America). A highly decorative idiom, Art Nouveau typically employed intricate curvilinear patterns of sinuous asymetrical lines, often based on plant-forms (sometimes derived from La Tene forms of Celtic art).

Floral and other plant-inspired motifs are popular Art Nouveau designs, as are female silhouettes and forms. Employing a variety of materials, the style was used in architecture, interior design, glassware, jewellery, poster art and illustration, as well as painting and sculpture. The movement was replaced in the 1920s by Art Deco.

Definition, Characteristics, Meaning, Focus of the Movement

There is no single definition or meaning of Art Nouveau. But the following are distinguishing factors. (1) Art Nouveau philosophy was in favour of applying artistic designs to everyday objects, in order to make beautiful things available to everyone. No object was too utilitarian to be "beautified". (2) Art Nouveau saw no separation in principle between fine art (painting and sculpture) and applied or decorative arts (ceramics, furniture, and other practical objects). (3) In content, the style was a reaction to a world of art which was dominated by the precise geometry of Neoclassical forms. It sought a new graphic design language, as far away as possible from the historical and classical models employed by the arts academies. (4) Art Nouveau remains something of an umbrella term which embraces a variety of stylistic interpretations: some artists used new low-cost materials and mass production methods while others used more expensive materials and valued high craftsmanship.

Types of Designs

In line with with the Art Nouveau philosophy that art should become part of everyday life, it employed flat, decorative patterns that could be used in all art forms. Typical decorative elements include leaf and tendril motifs, intertwined organic forms, mostly curvaceous in shape, although right-angled designs were also prevalent in Scotland and in Austria. Art made in this style typically depicted lavish birds, flowers, insects and other zoomorphs, as well as the hair and curvaceous bodies of beautiful women. For Art Nouveau architectural designs, see the exaggerated bulbous forms of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), and the stylistic Parisian Metro entrances of Hector Guimard (1867-1942).

Applications

Art nouveau designs were most common in glassware, jewellery, and other decorative objects like ceramics. But the style was also applied to textiles, household silver, domestic utensils, cigarette cases, furniture and lighting, as well as drawing, poster art, painting and book illustration. Art nouveau also had a strong application in the field of architecture and interior design. In this area, it exemplified a more humanistic and less functionalist approach to the urban environment. Hyperbolas and parabolas in windows, arches, and doors were typical as were plant-derived forms for moldings. Art Nouveau interior designers updated some of the more abstract elements of Rococo style, such as flame and shell textures, and also employed highly stylized organic forms, expanding the 'natural' repertoire to include seaweed, grasses, and insects. Art Nouveau architectural designs made broad use of exposed iron and large, irregular pieces of glass.

Decorative Arts - Glass and Jewellery

In both these areas, Art Nouveau found tremendous expression, as exemplified in works by Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York, Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow and Emile Galle and the Daum brothers in Nancy, France. Jewellery of the Art Nouveau period saw new levels of virtuosity in enameling as well as the introduction of new materials such as moulded glass, horn, and ivory. The growth of interest in Japanese art (Japonisme), along with increased respect for Japanese metalworking skills, also stimulated new themes and approaches to ornamentation. As a result, jewellers stopped seeing themselves as mere craftsmen whose task was to provide settings for precious stones like diamonds, and began seeing themselves as artist-designers. A new type of jewellery emerged that depended less on its gemstone content and more on its designwork. The jewellers of Paris and Brussels were at the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement and it was in these cities that it achieved the greatest success.

Influences

As a movement, Art Nouveau shared certain features with Romanticism, the Pre-Raphaelites, the Symbolists, and the Arts & Crafts Movement, although each differed in various ways. For example, unlike Symbolist painting, Art Nouveau has a distinctive visual look; and, in contrast to the artisan-oriented Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau artists readily employed new materials, and did not turn their backs on mass-produced or machined surfaces.

History

The term "Art Nouveau" stemmed from the name of the Parisian art gallery, called "La Maison de l'Art Nouveau", owned by the avant-garde art-collector Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), which showcased works created in the art nouveau style. The gallery's reputation and fame was considerably boosted by its installations of modern furniture, tapestries and objets d'art at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, after which the gallery's name became almost synonymous with the style.

At the same time, in Germany, the style was popularized and promoted by a magazine called Jugend: Münchner illustrierte Wochenschrift für Kunst und Leben (Youth: the illustrated weekly magazine of art and lifestyle of Munich), hence German art nouveau - along with that of the Netherlands, the Baltic and the Nordic countries - has since been known as "Jugendstil" (youth-style). In Austria, art nouveau was first popularized by artists of the Vienna Secession movement, leading to the adoption of the name "Sezessionstil". In fact, the Vienna Secessionists influenced art and architecture throughout Austria-Hungary.

Other temporary names were used which reflected the novelty of the style, or its ribbon-like curvilinear designs. For example, in France it was also known as "le style moderne" or "le style nouille" (noodle style); in Spain, "arte joven" (young art); in Italy "arte nuova" and in the Netherlands "Nieuwe kunst" (both, new art). The style was also named after certain of its exponents or promoters. For instance, Hector Guimard's Parisiam Metro entrances led to the temporary name "Style Metro"; in America the movement was called the "Tiffany style" due to its connection with the art nouveau glassmaker and jeweller Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Origins

The origins of Art Nouveau are unclear, although most art historians agree that its roots lay in William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement, as well as the flat-perspective and strong colours of Japanese woodcuts - the latter reinforced by the wave of Japonisme that swept through Europe in the 1880s and 1890s. Connections were also forged between practitioners of Jugendstil and Celtic-style artists, notably in the area of abstract patternwork. Perhaps the earliest example of art nouveau was the variety of rhythmic floral patterns used by Arthur Mackmurdo in his book-cover for Sir Christopher Wren's City Churches (1883). Whatever its exact origins, art nouveau benefited enormously from the exposure it received at international exhibitions such as the Paris Exposition Universelle (1900) and the Turin Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa Moderna (1902), as well as individual outlets such as London's Liberty & Co and Siegfried Bing's "Maison de l'Art Nouveau".

Famous Art Nouveau Artists

The two greatest graphic artists of the Art Nouveau movement were the French lithographer Jules Cheret (1836-1932) whose invention of "3-stone chromolithography" made Art Nouveau poster art feasible, and the Czech lithographer and designer Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) whose celebrated posters epitomized the Art Nouveau idiom. Emile Galle of France and Louis Comfort Tiffany of the United States were famous for their colourful art nouveau glassware, as were the English artists Aubrey Beardsley and Walter Crane for their wonderful art nouveau drawings. Other famous artists involved in the "new art" included: the French jewellery designer Rene Lalique, the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt, the Polish theatrical designer and stained glass artist Stanislaw Wyspianski, and the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), leader of the Glasgow School.

In architecture, leading art nouveau designers included the Hungarian architect Odon Lechner (1845–1914), the French architect Hector Guimard (1867-1942), the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), the Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861-1947), and the Viennese designers Otto Wagner (1841-1918) and Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908), to name but a few. In fact, art nouveau building designs were widespread throughout many parts of central and eastern Europe, including Latvia (Riga), the Czech Republic (Prague), Poland (Krakow), Slovenia (Ljubljana), as well as Spain (Casa Batllo, Casa Mila in Barcelona), and Italy. Further afield, examples of art nouveau-style buildings can be seen in South America (Uraguay's Montevideo) and Australia, though hardly at all in the United States where art nouveau's impact was more obvious on ornamental than spatial design.

Legacy & Influence of Art Nouveau

while Art Nouveau promoted a more widespread adoption of "beautiful" design, it did not diminish the value of the machine or mass-production (as the Arts and Crafts Movement did), but instead took advantage of many technological innovations from the late 19th century. Even so, by World War I, it too succumbed to the more streamlined design processes that were beginning to become available.

Possibly its greatest influence was on (1) 20th-century advocates of integrated design, such as the German Bauhaus design school and the Dutch design movement De Stijl; and (2) Graphic art such as illustration and poster-design.

Nowadays, art nouveau is viewed as an important bridge between Neoclassicism and modernism, and a number of its monuments are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, notably the historic centre of Riga, Latvia with over 750 buildings in the art nouveau style.

(source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com)