Art Nouveau: The Genesis

You might think that this movement is just about some pretty curved lines and illustrations of pretty women surrounded by pretty flowers and pretty ornaments, but it goes much deeper than that. Let’s picture Art Nouveau as a set of Nesting Dolls. Each doll bearing markings, the one more enchanting than the other, that tell the story of Art Nouveau in the most captivating of ways.

One can’t tell the story without the markings and one can’t understand the marking without some background. So let’s start there.

The Origin of the Movement that is Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau was an international avant-garde movement that was fashionable between 1890 and the Great War.  It was a movement that arose from a distaste for historicism in general and neo-classicism in particular, as well as the extent to which the Industrial Revolution replaced beauty with badly crafted and manufactured goods. It had a great will to push past the bounds of their conventions that ruled 19th century art. They sought a new aesthetic through a fresh analysis of function and a close study of natural forms.

But “between” does not in any way mean it was a transitional style.

In retrospect, this is way too much of a rigorous definition as the frontiers of a movement were often uncertain, indicating slow transitions rather than sudden defined breaks.  In 1961, Robert Schnutzler wrote in his book “Art Nouveau” that each movement is a living metamorphosis of art. This metamorphosis is vital to a movement self-transformation and played an important role in for Art Nouveau regarding forms, patterns and ideas. A movement grows out of the one that preceded it and immediately lays the seeds for the movements that will, with time, replace it.

Thus, Art Nouveau was a continuation of the older Arts and Crafts movement that strived for craft that is art and art that is well crafted. In fact it is in this movement that part of its roots lie.  Other roots dip into the rich influence of Celtic design and Japanese woodblock prints. These prints sported floral bulbous forms, and ‘whiplash’ curves that became key characteristics of Art Nouveau.

This ‘flick of a whip’ curve could also be found in early Celtic reliefs. Some artists that were key contributors to the genesis of art Nouveau were Irish. A Scottish publication, The Evergreen, published poems with ornamental initials and patterns with irregular ribbon-like lines in 1895. One thus has a good foot to stand on when saying that Art Nouveau allowed Celtic elements to reassert themselves in European art. Celtic design was also the main resource of all things weird, alien-like and bizarre in Art Nouveau.

One of the earliest examples of Art Nouveau, though, was the book cover for Sir Christopher Wren’s “City Churches” that displaying an array of rhythmic floral patterns designed by Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo in 1883.

The chronological frontiers of Art Nouveau are, thusly, indistinct.

 Its name did originate from the Parisian art gallery La Maison de l’Art Nouveau (The House of Art Nouveau) owned by avante-garde art-collector Siegfried Bing. The reputation and fame of this gallery, and Art Nouveau as an international movement, received a great boost by its installations of modern furniture, tapestries and objects d’art at the 1900 Exposition Universelle. It was through this exposition that the gallery’s name became synonymous with the movement.

The movement was referred to by many names in different regions, for example
  • Jugendstil (Youth style) - Germany
  • Sezessionstil - Vienna
  • Tiffany style - America
  • Arte Joven (Young art) - Spain
  • Arte Nouva (New Art) - Italy
  • Nieuwe kunst (New Art) - Netherlands
  • Le Style Moderne (The Modern Style) - France


It also got tagged with some derogatory name such as:

  •    Paling Stijl (eel style) - Belgium
  •    Bandwurmstil (tapeworm style) - Germany
  •    Le Style Nouille (noodle style) - France


References

Book

Schmutzler, R. 1961. Art Nouveau. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers. New York

Thesis

Halm, J. (2013). 20th Century Design Trends. MA. Thesis. University of Houston

Internet

Willette, J. 2010. Defining Art Nouveau. www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/defining-art-nouveau

Collins, N, 2010, Art Nouveau Design: Characteristics, History, Artists. www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/art-nouveau.html

Willette, J. 2010. Defining Art Nouveau. www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/defining-art-nouveau.html 

Horth, E. 2009. The Social Agenda of Art Nouveau. www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/guestcolumn-the-social-agenda-of-art-nouveau


Wolf, J. 2013. Art Nouveau. http://www.theartstory.org/movement-artnouveau.htm

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