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Art Nouveau in the 1900s

Lecturer Name : Nidaa GopeeStudent name : Benjamin Cedric SookahetStudent ID : 16323476Unit Name : Visual Communication 371

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Table of Contents

Executive summaryIntroductionDiscussion: The Origins of Art Nouveau Art movement in Europe Art movement outside Europe Major artistsConclusionBibliography

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Executive Summary^ ^

This study was to analyze and criticize a given era’s art movement.

It was requested by our lecturer; Nidaa Gopee.

It was requested on 18th March 2014.

The investigation and research was done by Cedric Sookahet

The main findings were that the Art Nouveau art movement greatly contributed in the

creation of a new style of art practice using several methods such as applied arts,

furnishing and architecture namely.

It was conluded that the Art Nouveau movement was an avant-garde movement and

is still has an impact on today’s art.

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Introduction^ ^

This report has been written as an assignment for the visual communication

371 module of Curtin University. It was requested by our lecturer, Nidaa

Gopee, and is due on 18th march 2014. The objectives of this report are

to be able to critically analyze an art movement and be able to use all the

information gathered to apply those movements technique to actual design

briefs. This report will therefore examine the art nouveau art movement,

its history, some of the most known artists and artworks found within the

movement and how it still affects our lives nowadays. It does not examine

in depth researches about each and every technique found within the

movement.

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Discussion^ ^

Art Nouveau is an international art movement featuring several

styles of art like architecture, paintings, jewelry, decorative arts, furniture

and textiles mainly. By having so many art styles within the movement,

art nouveau is considered as being a “total” art style. Created since the

1880s, the art movement’s artists inspired themselves from natural forms

and structures like trees or flowers but also of rare animal forms and curved

lines, referred as whiplashes.

“As in France, the new art was called by different names in the various

style centers where it developed throughout Europe. In Belgium, it was

called Style nouille or Style coup de fouet. In Germany, it was Jugendstil

or young style, after the popular journal Die Jugend (1991.182.2). Part of

the broader Modernista movement in Barcelona, its chief exponent was the

architect and redesigner of the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) cathedral

(Barcelona, begun 1882), Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). In Italy, it was named

Arte nuova, Stile floreale, or La Stile Liberty after the London firm of Liberty

& Co., which supplied Oriental ceramics and textiles to aesthetically aware

Londoners in the 1870s and produced English Art Nouveau objects such

as the Celtic Revival Cymric and Tudric ranges of silver by Archibald Knox

(1864–1933). Other style centers included Austria and Hungary, where Art

Nouveau was called the Sezessionstil. In Russia, Saint Petersburg and

Moscow were the two centers of production for Stil’ modern. Tiffany Style

in the United States was named for the legendary Favrile glass designs of

Louis Comfort Tiffany.” (Gondar, 2006)

Origins of Art Nouveau

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“The term art nouveau first appeared in the 1880s in the Belgian

journal L’Art Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters

and sculptors seeking reform through art. Les Vingt, like much of the

artistic community throughout Europe and America, responded to leading

nineteenth-century theoreticians such as French Gothic Revival architect

Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John

Ruskin (1819–1900), who advocated the unity of all the arts, arguing

against segregation between the fine arts of painting and sculpture and the

so-called lesser decorative arts. Deeply influenced by the socially aware

teachings of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau

designers endeavored to achieve the synthesis of art and craft, and further,

the creation of the spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk(“total work of art”)

encompassing a variety of media. The successful unification of the fine and

applied arts was achieved in many such complete designed environments

as Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde’s Hotel Tassel and Van Eetvelde

House (Brussels, 1893–95), Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret

Macdonald’s design of the Hill House (Helensburgh, near Glasgow, 1903–

4), and Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt’s Palais Stocklet dining room”

(Brussels, 1905–11)

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“Art nouveau first appeared in Western Europe in 1892, but it’s

birth didn’t just happen. Much change occurred within the decorative

and furniture creation as from about 1815 until 1889, when the Universal

Exposition in Paris celebrated the French revolution. Some artists during

that period decided to change from an old decoration perception and

wanted to distinguish themselves from their predecessors. The designers

finally asserted the art of their own time as their own.” (Lahor 2012, 7)

As we could read above, the art nouveau began from the revolution of

artists towards decorations and furniture creation and then spread out to

affect many other forms of art.

Furthermore, what changed the aspect of furniture during the art

nouveau period were the materials being used.

In 1892 Hector Guimard, French architect, got selected to design the

nowadays famous Metro stations of Paris. The materials and design

created reflected the art nouveau lifestyle, with lots of curves and having

the cast iron denuded. This idea was such an avant-gardes one that the

jury in charge of the project had it cancelled and prevented Guimard from

completing all the stations.

“History has selected England, Belgium and France as the undisputed

primary sources of Art Nouveau’s development in the late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries, but contemporaries were unaware of this

supremacy. In its section devoted to the decorative arts, the 1900 Universal

Exposition in Paris, which called for the construction of both the Grand

and Petit Palais, among other buildings, offered a sampling that gave a

taste of the real flavor of the period. For example, Gaudí, now inseparable

from Spanish Art Nouveau and a major architect who gave us the image of

Barcelona we know today, was the Exposition’s major no-show: he failed to

Art movement in Europe

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participate in the construction of the pavilions and none of his plans were

shown. At the same time, countries such as Russia, Hungary and Romania,

long since forgotten in the history of Art Nouveau, were well represented

alongside other countries that history wrongly seems to barely remember.”

(Lahor 2012, 39)

Each of those countries had what we could call specialties towards

the art movement and they will be described below.

France could be said to be the European country which had more

passion for Art Nouveau and therefore applied this new kind of art in many

ways. They were said to be specialized in all kind of jewelry, ceramics and

glassware. They excelled in “all the magical arts of fire – as well as in

sculpture and medallions” (Lahor 2012, 39).

The England pavilion amazingly represented the art nouveau

movement since 1878 and was known for their furniture mainly. There were

not as much artifacts present in the English art nouveau community than

in the French one and most of them were defined as having non attractive

colors, simple design and not really functional.

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Belgium was one of the pioneers of the art nouveau movement in Europe

and their artists always had a great influence on the world of art nouveau.

They specialized in paintings and sculpture mainly. The painting styles like

post-impressionism and symbolism were adapted to create art nouveau

artworks. Belgium even had a well known school of art known as the

Belgian school of sculpture.

There were several other European countries that influenced art

nouveau in a way but did not form part of the primary sources, as cited

above.

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The art nouveau movement expanded outside Europe to other continents

and it was mainly America and Russia that adopted the new emerging style

of art to design and create new types of artworks.

As art nouveau reached America, the city of New York was in a

great economic condition and art in general was also promoted through

museums, libraries and mansions. American artists were encouraged

to create their own type of new art and that’s how they became masters

in glass technologies, being inspired by roman and medieval glass

techniques. Moreover, in the city of Chicago, all the building s had to be

rebuilt after the Chicago fire which took place in 1871 and the new buildings

and skyscrapers where a reflection of art nouveau movement. With the use

of steel frames and floral ornaments we could clearly see the influence of

art nouveau in this new type of architecture.

On the left picture we can see the steel ornaments used in the new chicago

buildngs and skycrapers.

On right hand side picture,

we can see the glass art

designed and created in

New York.

Art movement outside Europe

The image of a copper plated cast-iron frame(National Gallery of Art, Washington,2014 )

The image of a glass lamp(National Gallery of Art, Washington,2014 )

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Russia and art nouveau happened when the Russians were searching

for a new kind of art when they discovered how the French created a

sculpture that stood out of anything they saw before. It inspired them to

create a new architectural style that could be represented as having been

inspired by the French art nouveau.

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In this part of the report we will be focusing on the main artists’ group that,

we could say, created the art nouveau movement; les vingts.

“The term art nouveau first appeared in the 1880s in the Belgian journal

L’Art Moderne to describe the work of Les Vingt, twenty painters and

sculptors seeking reform through art”(Gondar, 2006). Les Vingt were a

being led by the French architect “Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–

1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900)”(Gondar, 2006) who

wanted to unite all kinds of arts into a single movement. Therefore, each

artist being part of Les Vingts practiced various kinds of art method, mainly

applied arts, interior design, architecture, patterns and furnishings.

Below is a list of the main artist of art nouveau during the whole era and

worldwide.

“Painting

Fernand Khnopff (Grembergen-lez-Termonde, 1858 - Brussels, 1921)

Jan Toorop (Purworedjo, 1858 - The Hague, 1928)

Aubrey Beardsley (Brighton, 1872 - Menton, 1898)

Eugène Grasset (Lausanne, 1845 - Sceaux, 1917)

Georges de Feure (Paris, 1868 - 1943)

Alphonse Mucha (Ivancice, 1860 - Prague, 1939)

Gustav Klimt (Vienna, 1862 - 1918)

Koloman Moser (Vienna, 1868 - 1918)

Major Artists

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Architecture

Victor Horta (Gand, 1861 - Brussels, 1947)

Henry Van de Velde (Anvers, 1863 - Zurich, 1957)

Hector Guimard (Lyon, 1867 - New York, 1942)

Antoni Gaudí (Riudoms, 1852 - Barcelona, 1926)

Decorative Arts

Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (Liège, 1858 - Anvers, 1910)

Louis Majorelle (Toul, 1859 - Nancy, 1926)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Glasgow, 1868 - London, 1928)

Louis Comfort Tiffany (New York, 1848 - 1933)

Emile Gallé (Nancy, 1846 - 1904)

The Daum brothers: Auguste (Bitche, 1853 - Nancy, 1909)and Antonin

(Bitche, 1864 - Nancy, 1930)

René Jules Lalique (Ay, 1860 - Paris, 1945)” (Lahor, 2012)

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Art nouveau as we read earlier was a very strong art movement that

still have a great impact on art and design nowadays. Some key words that

we can remember are the following

• Modern

• International

• Variety

• Technique

For that time, art nouveau was an avant-garde style of art that was

modern, as is still actual. It was also the first biggest movement having an

international impact on art, using a variety or art practices and different

techniques.

The main findings about this given era and movement are that art and

design are always looking for something more, something to improve so as

to create art anew. Art nouveau movement could be the ultimate example

for this and reading about it to write the report was a great experience.

Conclusion^ ^

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Lahor, Jean and Rebecca Brimacombe. Art nouveau. [New York]:

Parkstone International, 2012.

Metmuseum.org. “Art Nouveau | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art

History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” 2006.

Nga.gov. “Art Nouveau.” n.d..

Bibliography^ ^