Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau

Generating enthusiasts in the decorative and graphic arts and architecture

throughout Europe and beyond, Art Nouveau appeared in a wide variety of strands,
and, consequently, it is known by various names, such as the Glasgow Style, or, in
the German-speaking world, Jugendstil. Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing
design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously been
popular. Artists drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving
elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms resembling the stems and
blossoms of plants. The emphasis on linear contours took precedence over color,
which was usually represented with hues such as muted greens, browns, yellows,
and blues. The movement was committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of
the arts, which viewed the so-called liberal arts, such as painting and sculpture, as
superior to craft-based decorative arts. The style went out of fashion for the most
part long before the First World War, paving the way for the development of Art
Deco in the 1920s, but it experienced a popular revival in the 1960s, and it is now
seen as an important predecessor - if not an integral component - of modernism.
Key Ideas & Accomplishments

•The desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19 th century was an important
impetus behind Art Nouveau and one that establishes the movement's modernism.
Industrial production was, at that point, widespread, and yet the decorative arts were
increasingly dominated by poorly-made objects imitating earlier periods. The
practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of
craft, and produce genuinely modern design that reflected the utility of the items
they were creating.

•Art Nouveau artists sought to overturn that belief, aspiring instead to "total works of
the arts," the famous Gesamtkunstwerk, that inspired buildings and interiors in which
every element worked harmoniously within a related visual vocabulary. In the process,
Art Nouveau helped to narrow the gap between the fine and the applied arts, though
it is debatable whether this gap has ever been completely closed.

•Many Art Nouveau practitioners felt that earlier design had been excessively
ornamental, and in wishing to avoid what they perceived as frivolous decoration, they
evolved a belief that the function of an object should dictate its form. In practice this
was a somewhat flexible ethos, yet it would be an important part of the style's legacy
to later modernist movements, most famously the Bauhaus.
Beginnings of Art Nouveau
The advent of Art Nouveau - literally "New Art" - can be traced to two distinct
influences: the first was the introduction, around 1880, of the British Arts and
Crafts movement, which, much like Art Nouveau, was a reaction against the
cluttered designs and compositions of Victorian-era decorative art. The second was
the current vogue for Japanese art, particularly wood-block prints, that swept up
many European artists in the 1880s and 90s, including the likes of Gustav Klimt,
Emile Gallé, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Japanese wood-block prints in
particular contained floral and bulbous forms, and "whiplash" curves, all key
elements of what would eventually become Art Nouveau. t is difficult to pinpoint
the first work(s) of art that officially launched Art Nouveau. Some argue that the
patterned, flowing lines and floral backgrounds found in the paintings of Vincent
van Gogh and Paul Gauguin represent Art Nouveau's birth, or perhaps even the
decorative lithographs of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, such as Moulin Rouge: La
Goulue (1891). But most point to the origins in the decorative arts, and in particular
to a book jacket by English architect and designer Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo for
the 1883 volume Wren's City Churches. The design depicts serpentine stalks of
flowers emanating from one flattened pad at the bottom of the page, clearly
reminiscent of Japanese-style wood-block prints.
Art Nouveau Graphics and Design
Art Nouveau's ubiquity in the late-19th century must be explained in part by many
artists' use of popular and easily reproduced forms, found in the graphic arts. In
Germany, Jugendstil artists work printed on book covers and exhibition catalogs,
magazine advertisements and playbills.

The English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, perhaps the most controversial Art
Nouveau figure due to his combination of the erotic and the macabre, created a
number of posters in his brief career that employed graceful and rhythmic lines.
Beardsley's highly decorative prints, such as The Peacock Skirt (1894), were both
decadent and simple, and represent the most direct link we can identify between
Art Nouveau and Japonism/Ukiyo-e prints.

In France, the posters and graphic production and a handful of others popularized
the lavish, decadent lifestyle of the belle époque (roughly the era between 1890-
1914), usually associated with the seedy cabaret district of Montmartre in
northern Paris. The graphic works used new chromolithographic techniques to
promote everything from new technologies like telephones and electric lights to
bars, restaurants, nightclubs and even individual performers, evoking the energy
and vitality of modern life. In the process, they soon raised the poster from the
ranks of the pedestrian advertisement to high art.
Art Nouveau Architecture
Art Nouveau architecture prevailed on a grand scale, in both size and appearance,
and is still visible today in structures as varied as small row houses to great
institutional and commercial buildings. In architecture especially, Art Nouveau was
showcased in a wide variety of idioms. Many buildings incorporate a prodigious use
of terracotta and colorful tilework. The French ceramicist Alexandre Bigot, for
example, made his name largely through the production of terracotta ornament for
the facades and fireplaces of Parisian residences and apartment buildings. Other
Art Nouveau structures, particularly in France and show off the technological
possibilities of an iron structure joined by glass panels.

Art Nouveau Furniture and Interior Design

Art Nouveau was intimately associated with interior decoration at least as much as
it was conspicuous on exterior facades. Also like these other styles of the 19 th
century, Art Nouveau interiors also strove to create a harmonious, coherent
environment that left no surface untouched. Furniture design took center stage in
this respect, particularly in the production of carved wood that featured sharp,
irregular contours, often handcrafted but occasionally manufactured using
machines. Furniture makers turned out pieces for every use imaginable: beds,
chaises, dining room tables and chairs, armoires, sideboards, and lamp stands. The
sinuous curves of the designs often fed off the natural grain of woods and was
often permanently installed as wall paneling and molding.
Painting and "The High Arts“

Few styles can claim to be represented across nearly all forms of visual and material
media as thoroughly as Art Nouveau. Besides those who worked mainly in the
graphics, architecture, and design, Art Nouveau counts some prominent
representatives in painting, such as the Vienna Secessionist Gustav Klimt, known for
Hope II and The Kiss (both 1907-08), and Victor Prouvé in France. But Art Nouveau
painters were few and far between: Klimt counted virtually no students or followers
(Egon Schiele went in the direction of Expressionism), and Prouvé is known equally
well as a sculptor and furniture designer. Instead, Art Nouveau was arguably
responsible, more than any style in history, for narrowing the gap between the
decorative or applied arts (to utilitarian objects) and the fine or purely ornamental
arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, which traditionally had been
considered more important, purer expressions of artistic talent and skill. (It is
debatable, however, as to whether that gap has ever been completely closed.)