Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international decorative style that thrived roughly during the decades of 1890 and 1910 which means it girded the turn of the century. It encompassed all genres of design arts. Its identifying visual quality is an organic plantlike line. Freed from roots and gravity it can either undulate with whiplash energy or flow with elegant grace as it defines, modulates and decorates a given space. Vine tendrils, flowers, birds and the human female form were frequent motifs from which this fluid line was adapted.

The term Art Nouveau arose in an art gallery called Salon de l’ Art Nouveau, run by art dealer Samueal Bing, which opened in 1895. This Gallery became an international meeting place where young artists were introduced. Among them were American glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose work had a sizable influence on Europe. Art Nouveau soon embraced all areas of art including the previous mentioned along with ceramics, ornaments and book designs.

Nikolaus Pevsner’s book Pioneers of Modern Design that appeared in 1936, 1949 and 1960 was one of first to give Art Nouveau a significant position in the development of the 20^thcentury art and architecture. He saw the movement’s principle characteristics as “the long sensitive curve” reminiscent  of the stem of a Lily, an insect’s feeler, the filament of a blossom or occasionally a slender flame; the curve undulating, flowing and interplaying with others, sprouting from corners and covering asymmetrically all available surfaces. To dismiss art nouveau as surface decoration is to ignore its pivotal role in the evolution of all aspects of design. Art Nouveau is the traditional style that evolved from the historicism that dominated design for most of the 19^th century. Art Nouveau became the initial phase of the modern movement, preparing the way for the 20^th century by rejecting the anachronistic approaches to the 19^thcentury. This was a vital part in architecture and the applied arts because it formed a bridge between Victorian clutter and modernism just as the arts and crafts movement was a transition period from the industrial revolution to art nouveau.

The Victorian sought solutions through established historical approaches. The modernists, though, adopted a new international ornamental style using elegant motives aligned with nature and often distinguished by free and graceful lines. Although expressions of this new style varied from country to country, they were all part of the same family.

Ideas, processes and forms of the 20^th century art bare witness to a catalytic function. Modern architecture, graphic and industrial design, surrealism and abstract art have roots in art Noveau’s underlying theory and concepts. In Art Noveau’s graphics, the organic linear movements frequently dominate the spatial area and other visual properties, such as color and texture. In earlier three-dimensional design, ornaments often were mere decorative elements applied to the surface of a building or object, but in art nouveau objects, the basic forms and shapes were formed by and evolved with the design of the ornament. This was a new design principle unifying decoration, structure and intended function, because art nouveau forms and lines were often invented rather than copied from nature or the past. There was a revitalization of the design process that pointed towards abstract art.

Perhaps the genius of the movement was Belgian architect Baron Victor Horta. His townhouse for Emile Tassel was unified by tendrilous curvilinear networks unlike anything yet seen in England or on the continent. During this period, there was a close collaboration between artists and writers. The French symbolist movement in literature in the 1880’s and 1890’s, with its rejection of realism in favor of the metaphysical and sensuous, was an important influence and led artists to symbolic and philosophic attitudes. In a skeptical era with scientific rationalism on the rise and traditional religious beliefs and social norms under assault, art was seen as a potential vehicle to much needed spiritual rejuvenation. Birth, life and growth; death and decay became symbolic subject matters. The complexity of this era and movement has allowed contradictory interpretations because of its decorativeness. Some observers see art nouveau as an expression of late 19^th century decadence; others, however, noted art Noveau’s quest for spiritual and aesthetic values and saw it as a reaction against the retrogression and materialism of the epoch.

Art Nouveau graphic designers and illustrators attempted to make art a part of everyday life. Their fine arts training had educated them about art forms and methods developed primarily for aesthetic considerations. At the same time, they enthusiastically embraced applied art techniques that had evolved with the development of commercial printing processes. Because of this, they were able to significantly upgrade the visual quality of mass communications. Advances in transportation and communications technology accelerated the international character of art nouveau. Contact between artists in various nations through print media and international exhibitions allowed cross-fertilization to take place. Artists gained inspiration from one another and were able to develop new ideas. The many art periodicals of the 1890 has served this purpose while simultaneously introducing the new art and design to a larger audience.

The numerous sources often cited for art nouveau are diffuse and wide ranging .They include William Blake’s book illustration, Celtic ornaments, the rococo style , the Arts and Crafts movement, Pre – Raphaelite painting , Japanese decorative design, and especially ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Important inspiration also came from European painting in the late 1880’s, which had fallen under the Asian spell. Art Nouveau also gained influence from the swirling forms of Vincent Van Gogh, the flat color and stylized organic contour of Paul Gauguin and the work from the Nabis group of young artists all played a role. The Nabis explored symbolic color and decorative patterns and concluded that a painting was, first of all, an arrangement of color in two dimensional patterns.