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ART NOUVEAU

Art nouveau /nuvo/ (French for "new art") is a style in art, architecture and design that peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century. Other, more localized terms for the cluster of self-consciously radical, somewhat mannered reformist chic that formed a prelude to 20th-century modernism, included "Jugendstil" in Germany and the Netherlands, named for the snappy avant-garde periodical Jugend ('Youth'), Mloda Polska (Young Poland) in Poland, or "Sezessionsstil" ('Secessionism') in Vienna, where forward-looking artists and designers seceded from the mainstream salon exhibitions, to exhibit on their own.

In Russia, the movement revolved around the art magazine World of Art, which spawned the revolutionary Ballets Russes. In Italy, "Stile Liberty" was named for the London shop, Liberty & Co, which distributed modern design emanating from the Arts and Crafts movement, a sign both of the Art Nouveau's commercial aspect and the "imported" character that it always retained in Italy. In Catalonia, the movement was centered in Barcelona and was known as "modernisme", with Antoni Gaudí as the most noteworthy practitioner. Art Nouveau was also a force in Eastern Europe, with the influence of Alfons Mucha in Moravia and Latvian Romanticism (Riga, the capital of Latvia, is home to over 800 Art Nouveau buildings).

Career of Art Nouveau

Though Art Nouveau climaxed in the years 1892 to 1902, the first stirrings of an Art Nouveau can be recognized in the 1880s, in a handful of progressive designs such as the architect-designer Arthur Mackmurdo's often-illustrated bookcover design for his essay on the city churches of Sir Christopher Wren, published in 1883. Some free-flowing wrought iron from the 1880s could also be adduced, or some flat floral textile designs, most of which owed some impetus to vegetal-derived patterns of High Victorian design.

The name "Art Nouveau" derived from a shop in Paris, Maison de l'Art Nouveau, run by Samuel Bing.

A high point in the evolution of Art Nouveau was the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris, in which the "modern style" triumphed in every medium. It probably reached its apogee, however, at the 1902 Turin Exposition in Italy, where designers exhibited from almost every European country where Art Nouveau flourished. Ironically, Art Nouveau made use of many technological innovations of the late 19th century, especially the broad use of exposed iron and large, irregularly-shaped pieces of glass in architecture, but by the start of the First World War the highly stylized nature of Art Nouveau design - which itself was expensive to produce - began to be dropped in favor of more streamlined, simply rectilinear modernism that was cheaper and thought to be more faithful to the rough, plain industrial aesthetic.

The entrances to the Paris Metro designed by Hector Guimard in 1899 and 1900 are notable and famous examples of Art Nouveau.

Character of Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is considered a "total" style, meaning that it encompasses a hierarchy of scales in design - architecture, interior design, jewelry, furniture and textile design, utensils and art objects, lighting, etc.

Art Nouveau advocated the use of highly-stylized nature as the source of inspiration and expanded the "natural" repertoire to embrace seaweed, grasses, and insects. Correspondingly organic forms, curved lines, especially floral or vegetal, and the like, were used. Other features of Art Nouveau are flowing, curved "whiplash" lines of syncopated rhythm and usage of hyperbolas and parabolas.

The style found tremendous expression in Glass making - the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York and Émile Gallé and the Daum brothers in Nancy, France. For sculpture the materials were glass and wrought iron, leading to sculpturesque quality even in architecture.

[Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]