In this investigation I will look into the history, materials and beliefs of the time when the style appeared. I will research into architecture, fine art, fashion, decorative arts, furniture and theatre.
Art Nouveau: c 1890-1910
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. There was never any idea that it would
become a generic term but somehow it caught on.
Art Nouveau is the name for the artistic movement that started in Europe around 1890 and lasted until around 1910. It took on many different characteristics in different places, and some of the most famous designers from the era have different styles, including Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Josef Hoffmann in Vienna and Carlo Bugatti in Italy. What these designers had in common was an interest in finding a new artistic vocabulary that could best express the modern world.
Art Nouveau, as a movement was remarkable in the way that it spread throughout Europe
and the world. Paris and Britain can be seen as the center of the movement but each country
developed its own interpretation and made it their own to some extent. By the turn of the
century the movement was an international phenomenon but there was no single style- all the
countries demonstrated their own national characteristics. Art Nouveau was also primarily an
urban style and was focused very much on the big cities of the countries it touched.
gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by Samuel Bing. There was never any idea that it would
become a generic term but somehow it caught on.
Art Nouveau is the name for the artistic movement that started in Europe around 1890 and lasted until around 1910. It took on many different characteristics in different places, and some of the most famous designers from the era have different styles, including Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, Josef Hoffmann in Vienna and Carlo Bugatti in Italy. What these designers had in common was an interest in finding a new artistic vocabulary that could best express the modern world.
Art Nouveau, as a movement was remarkable in the way that it spread throughout Europe
and the world. Paris and Britain can be seen as the center of the movement but each country
developed its own interpretation and made it their own to some extent. By the turn of the
century the movement was an international phenomenon but there was no single style- all the
countries demonstrated their own national characteristics. Art Nouveau was also primarily an
urban style and was focused very much on the big cities of the countries it touched.
In an era of industrialised production, many designers looked to
a local, pre-industrial past for a foundation; in
Russia that was folk tales and folk history, and in France it was the
18th-century 'golden age' of French design. Some artists welcomed technological progress and embraced the aesthetic possibilities of new materials such as cast iron. Others disapproved the shoddiness of mass-produced machine-made goods and aimed to elevate the decorative arts to the level of fine art by applying the highest standards of craftsmanship and design to everyday objects. Working in cities like Paris, Nancy
and Brussels, Art Nouveau designers found greatest inspiration in nature — not necessarily nature's beauty, but
instead its vital force, its never-changing life cycle of birth, life, decay and death.
Nature sometimes took the role of a creepy other-world, governed by dark
uncontrollable forces.
This idea of an uncontrollable world all around us was mirrored in the Art
Nouveau interest in psychology, symbolism and the supernatural.
Sigmund Freud was writing about the unconscious dream world, and artists were
trying to explore that world through art and design.
As always, women were important muses for artists and designers, Art Nouveau woman had a menacing twist. She was alluringly sexual, but also scandalous, morally compromised, even mortally threatening.
As always, women were important muses for artists and designers, Art Nouveau woman had a menacing twist. She was alluringly sexual, but also scandalous, morally compromised, even mortally threatening.
The style of art nouveau can be described as:
- elongated, curvy lines
- the whiplash line
- vertical lines and height
- stylised flowers, leaves, roots, buds and seedpods
- the female form - in a pre-Raphaelite pose with long, flowing hair
- exotic woods, marquetry, iridescent glass, silver and semi-precious stones
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