ART NOUVEAU

Art Nouveau was considered to be a ‘total style’ meaning that

it encompassed a hierarchy of scales in design: architecture,
interior design, decorative arts including jewellery, glassware
and ceramics, furniture, textiles, household silver and other
utensils, lighting and the range of the visual arts.

Art Nouveau can be seen to unite function and decoration.

This meant that as an art-form, despite certain airs of elegance,

luxury and decadence, that it was open to and attainable by the
poor as well as the wealthy
Late 19th to early 20th century
The name ‘Art Nouveau’ came from La Maison de l’Art Nouveau,
a shop and interior design
gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by Samuel Bing.

Art nouveau is the generic term describing new expressions in

architecture and applied decorative arts

Historic models were abandoned – hence it can be considered as

the first stage of modern architecture.

But not altogether reject traditions

New free creative forms inspired from nature

Impetus – lack of aesthetic quality in the products displayed in

industrial exhibitions.
Exploited the light and airiness permitted by new materials

Drawing inspiration from nature – curved abstractions,

slender vegetal forms.

1893 – 1905 – most creative phase

Origin - graphics and decorative arts
Henry Cole – school of design , William Morris manufacturing
firm produced simple artistic utilitarian style inspired from
nature and Japanese style.
Art nouveau is the movement started by new middle
classes in
Brussels
Glasgow
Nancy
Berlin
barcelona
Spurred by urban redevelopment and an increasingly
prosperous middle class, Brussels became one of the first
cities in Europe to embrace Art Nouveau.
ART NOUVEAU – new art (1890 - 1905)
International art movement – decorative arts, Originating in Belgium and
France,
In Germany it was called Jugendstil,
in Italy Stile Liberty,
in Austria Sezession
and in Spain Modernista or Modernismo
It’s a approach to design
Not concerned with the social reform movements of the day.
It addressed the clutter and eclecticism of mid-19th century European taste.
This movement advocated nature as the true source of all good design.
Art Nouveau designers objected to the borrowing of design ideas from the past,
and even from other cultures, although the Japanese approach to nature was
much admired and emulated.
The characteristics
sinuous curved line, together with asymmetrical arrangement of forms and
patterns.
Organic, floral,plant inspired motifs
The forms from nature were characterized
by flowing curves - grasses, lilies, vines,.
Other, more unusual natural forms were also used, such as peacock feathers,
butterflies, and insects.
HIGHLY STYLIZED FLOWING CURVILINEAR FORMS
Hector guimard
Art Nouveau style influenced the very most ordinary parts of
everyday life are the Paris Metro signs made in iron and glass by
Hector Guimard between 1899 and 1905.

These have sometimes been

interpreted as ‘street furniture’ and
can
be seen to represent urban art for
the people.
 ENTRANCE DOOR CASTLE HENRITTE

HOTEL MEZNA
Staircase of the Maison & Atelier of
Victor Horta. This building is one of
four Horta-designed town houses in
Brussels that are together recognised by
UNESCO as "representing the highest
expression of the influential Art
Nouveau style in art and architecture