28. Art Nouveau (1890-1910)
What was it about? What were the goals?
This was a trendy style of art and design, inspired by nature, particularly flowers and trees, which lasted from around 1890-1910. It was international, and had many names: Secessionsstil, Jugendstil, Style Jules Verne, Le Style Métro, Art Belle Époque, Art fin de siècle, Style nouille, Stile Liberty (from the Liberty department store in London), Arte nova, Nieuwe Kunst, and Stile Floreal among others.
The name Art Nouveau comes from a Parisian art gallery, the Maison de l'Art Nouveau, originally owned by Siegfried Bing. The German name comes from the Vienna Secession in 1897, where Gustav Klimt led a rebellion against the Vienna Künstlerhaus, leaving the group and forming his own – the Secessionsstil. So, you can see, this was linked with the Symbolists.
This was one of the only art movements to focus almost exclusively on decoration. The goal was to raise craft making to a fine-art status, to create museum-worthy posters, furniture, jewelry, ceramics, and buildings, and to refashion the world in a new, ornate, modern style. There’s a certain sense of optimism to it all, of creating a better world.
A bit of historical context:
So, this movement started as a rebellion against previous styles. The biggest early influences were the textile designs of William Morris in England, and the work of French architect Viollet-le-Duc. The first Art Nouveau buildings were designed not in Paris, but Brussels in 1893. Belgian architects Horta and Van de Velde designed not only buildings, but the interiors with all the furniture, wallpaper, and carpeting. Guimard brought this style of architecture to Paris in 1895.
Japanese woodblock prints were another influence, as Siegfried Bing founded a magazine to showcase it, Le Japon artistique in 1888. Features borrowed from Japanese art included long, flat figures and subjects, an emphasis in strong contour lines, strong compositions, and bold, bright colours.
Art Nouveau quickly gained international attention and acclaim due to new printing technologies that allowed for the mass printing of magazines, for the first time. It gained its greatest glory at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, a huge showcase of art and design. By 1910, Art Nouveau fell out of fashion as designers latched onto the next big fad: Art Deco.
The underlying philosophy of the period:
The basic idea was that an artist could make high art from anything, even a chair or a dinner plate. The impulse was to elevate decoration to a high art form––to the realm of a genius. The idea was, it doesn’t matter what you make, but how you make it, and it influenced painting as well. In 1891 the painter Maurice Denis wrote, “I believe that before everything a painting must decorate. The choice of subjects or scenes is nothing. It is by the value of tones, the coloured surface and the harmony of lines that I can reach the spirit and wake up the emotions.”
How was it represented in other arts – music, literature?
It wasn’t. Art Nouveau was primarily a decorative movement of design, architecture, and graphic illustration. There’s not even much painting you could call Art Nouveau – most of these painters are described as either Symbolists or Post Impressionists.
Was it great?
Absolutely, Art Nouveau shows you what happens when someone intelligent takes a really simple concept, like a chair or a fork, and rethinks the look of it to such an extent that he completely reinvents it. Like all Modern art, this was a time of experimentation, so not every experiment succeeded, which is why some people criticize this movement for being too gaudy, meaning overly decorated, and for being at times tasteless, vulgar or kitsch. But, the best of these artists surpassed these hurdles to make truly breathtaking artworks.
How did Art Nouveau differ from Rococo?
Good question. Both these styles featured flowery decoration and asymmetrical designs. Art Nouveau emphasized more elongated, thinner, curving forms, and an intricate weaving of forms similar to how vines and seaweed grow. Pan magazine (1894) described them as, “sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip.” Art Nouveau also favored parabolas and hyperbolas in windows, doors, and other designs, and looked even further into nature for inspiration, especially studying insects.
Art Nouveau also favored new materials, particularly stained glass and enamel, and prized iron, ivory, and exotic, imported wood all of which it mixed together, whereas Rococo tended to favor marble, porcelain, gold, and bronze. Rococo was a lighter, delicate, even fragile variant of the Baroque style – still grandiose, proper, and geometric, only more sophisticated. Art Nouveau felt at times a bit more alien and strange. Geometry was thrown out in favor of long, broad, swaying curves. It was more daring and rebellious. Still, there’s a bit of an echo back to the Rococo spirit of wealth, excess, and optimism for the future. And it was also short-lived.
Alphonse Mucha’s Slavic Epic
This section will be added later...
Some leading figures:
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879) (architect)
William Morris (1834-1896) (textile designer)
Otto Wagner (1841-1918) (architect)
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) (glass designer)
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923) (illustrator)
Louis Majorelle (1859-1926) (furniture designer)
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) (illustrator & designer)
Victor Horta (1861-1947) (architect & designer)
Henry Clemens Van de Velde (1863-1957) (architect & designer)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Jules Aimé Lavirotte (1864-1929) (architect)
Archibald Knox (1864-1933) (jeweler)
Félix Edouard Vallotton (1865-1925)
Hector Guimard (1867-1942) (architect)
Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)
Some of the most famous artworks of the time:
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