Art Nouveau
When one considers the term “Art Nouveau,” what comes to mind most immediately is “images of a European-wide invasion [characterized] by the restless dynamism of organic form”(Silverman 1). For me it is usually the work of Alphonse Mucha– his mysterious women surrounded by the beauties of nature. Often my Art Nouveau fantasies take shape in the odd fungal-shaped stained-glass lamps of Tiffany. Or sometimes they surface as the romantic Parisian posters I’ve seen at Pier One, advertising champagne or cats noir or bicycles or the like. But no matter what ones notion may be of what Art Nouveau looks like, there is a feeling that accompanies it that is at the heart of the style’s appeal. It is difficult to define or describe what that feeling is. Is it even fruitful to attempt a description of it? Irregardless of this, no doubt the people of 1900 had their own notions and feelings about the style, that were shaped by the events and influences of their own times. While Art Nouveau served as a stylistic stepping stone between centuries, it was also an embodiment of the sentiments of the time from which it came.
Art Nouveau is a style that is easy to recognize, yet hard to define. There are several basic identifying characteristics that classify a work as Art Nouveau, the primary one being the use of line. The lines in an Art Nouveau piece are always fluid and undulating, some critics have even described them as “whiplash”(Fern qtd. in Selz 22), quite true of the work of many of the practitioners of the genre. In most pieces, the effect is more subtle, but always evident. What sets apart the sinuous lines of Art Nouveau from those of other styles is that the line in Art Nouveau “becomes a twisting, living thing, enclosin...
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“Pierre Bonnard, France Champagne, lithograph (image).” Les Maitres des Arts Graphiques. 26 October 2004 <http://www.maitres-des-arts-graphiques.com/BON.I1.html>.
“Power Macintosh G4 (2000) General Information.” SandpointMacs.com. 26 October 2004 <http://www.sandpointmacs.com/pages/g4_2000_information.html>.
Selz, Peter. “Introduction.” Art Nouveau. Eds. Peter Selz and Mildred Constantine. New York: Plantin P, 1959. 7-17.
Silverman, Debora. Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siecle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style. Berkeley: U of California P, 1989.
“Utamaro’s Woodblock Print.” 26 October 2004 <http://www.asahi-jc.com/woodut.htm>.
Weisberg, Gabriel P. “Japonisme: Early Sources and the French Printmaker 1854-1882.” Japonisme: Japanese Influence on French Art, 1854-1910. Ed. n. g. Somerset: Hilman Printers, 1975. 1-19.
Carden, Robert W. "The Franco-British Exhibition." Architectural Review 1908 July, v. 24, p. [32]-37 ; 1908 Sept., p. [108]-111
Fashion reflects the attitudes of a society more than any other art form. Like art, fashion is a material record of the ideals that swayed the nations at the time of their creation. Through examining the styles, and tastes of a particular era, we can realize where the interests and priorities of a time lie. As Frank Parsons wrote in his 1920 study, The Psychology of Dress, "There is surly no better field in which to trace the devious paths of human thought than in that of clothes, where man has ever given free play to self expression, in a way which, thought not always a credit to his intelligence, is yet quite true to his innermost self, whether he will acknowledge it or not." Through, tracing and analyzing, side by side, art and fashion, and the effects that one had on the other and society, we can understand the ideals, and interests of European culture, here, through the Renaissance.
In her, “Modernity and the Spaces of Feminity,” Griselda Pollock questions the representations and myths of modernity in Paris during the nineteenth century. The Impressionist movement, dominated by a masculine perspective, represent Paris as being the new place for recreation, leisure and unrestrained pleasure. But, what about Impressionist women painters? what was their point of view? Pollock argues that a historical asymmetry, which is a social and economical difference produced by a social structuration of sexual difference, determined both what and how men and women painted. Therefore, in order to analyze female Impressionist, we must take into consideration that they share the same social system produced by a sexual differentiation, hence,
Before Impressionism came to be a major movement (around 1870-1800s), Neoclassical and Romanticism were still making their impacts. Remembering last week’s lesson, we know that both those styles were different in the fact that one was based on emotion, while the other was practical and serious. However, one thing they both shared was the fact that the artists were trying to get a message across; mostly having to do with the effects of the French Revolution, and/or being ordered to do so. With Impressionism, there is a clear difference from its predecessors.
Arwas, V., Newell, S., Museum, S. & Gallery, A., 1996. The art of glass. 8th ed. Paris: Andreas Papadakis Publisher.
It was the Swing era of jazz music, big bands, and flappers, as well as the birth of the silent movie and silver screen charm where celebrities reveled in lavish indulgence. As a result of the considerable reforms in social, personal and economical matters of post World War 1, expensive, hand crafted and formal Art Nouveau lost its support and was replaced with a new design concept of mass produced modernism. The jumbled floral patterns, pastel colors and the overly decorative curls and designs of Art Nouveau were cleared down to angular geometric shapes, uncomplicated, vivid and striking colors, crisp shapes and stylish, elegant characteristics of the new style Art
1. Hunter, Sam and Jacobs, John. Modern Art, 3rd Edition. The Vendome Press, New York, 1992.
The Art Nouveau style and movement, at its height between 1890 and 1910, enabled a sense of freedom for both its artists and the public as a whole. It offered strikingly original ideologies and transformed both the artistic and the mundane world alike with common characteristics like curvilinear shapes and a sense of the return to the natural and to nature as well as being at the crux of a fundamental change in how artworks were mass produced. The Art Nouveau style seemed to walk between the two worlds: it was simultaneously fantastical and grounded in reality and there was no artist in the period that was better equipped to “know and see the dance of the seven veils,” (Zatlin) than Aubrey Beardsley. It is impossible to fully discuss the value
Women have spent a large amount of time throughout the 20th century fighting for liberation from a patriarchal form that told them that they must be quiet and loyal to their husbands and fathers. For the duration of this essay, I will be discussing how the “Modern Woman” image that appeared through the Art Deco style — that emulated ideas such as the femme fatale and masqueraded woman, and presented new styles to enhance women’s comfortability and freedom — is still prevalent and has grown in contemporary art and design since. Overall I will describing to you how fashion, sexuality, and the newly emerged ‘female gaze’, and how these tie in together — in both periods of time — to produce what can be described as powerful femininity.
The Art Nouveau movement stands as a marked shift in artistic production and artist liberties as it existed between two worlds: it was simultaneously fantastical and irrevocably real. It offered a return to the natural with characteristics like meandering curvilinear shapes and bold colorings. There is no artist within the Art Nouveau movement that was better equipped to “know and see the dance of the seven veils,” (Zatlin, 8) than Aubrey Beardsley. To attempt discussions of the complexity of Art Nouveau without including Beardsley is to not fully envelop the movement and style, as Beardsley himself moved between the two worlds of the fantastical and the real. He illustrated the sexuality and grotesque decadence of the era while maintaining
O’Donnell, Sr., Joseph J.. “Art and the French Revolution”. The Eerie Digest, May 2013. Web. 5th May 2013.
Arts and Crafts: This movement was similar to the Art Nouveau, although it began in Great Britain in the late 19th Century. In architecture, the style advocated a return to the Gothic architecture in order to restore the values missing in the industrialized world. “Perhaps nowhere else does art and architecture capture this vernacular and cultural landscape as perfectly as is the case in New Mexico.” (Cummings, 2001, p. 8)
(Web Museum 2) Pioch, Nicolas. “Expressionism.” 16 September 2002. Web Museum: Paris. 16 November 2002 < http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/expressionism/>. – Definition and brief history of Expressionism.
They all stressed the importance of handmade, decorative, ornamental and functional designs. William Morris started the movement as a reaction against the machine and stressed the importance of working with your hands. He didn’t see the beauty in mechanically produced things and neither did Art nouveau artists and Modernista architects. They all collectively stressed the importance of new never before seen structures and styles that would inspire people and bring beauty to a world that was becoming bland and repetitive.
In conclusion, the art of the 19th century was composed of a sequence of competing artistic movements that sought to establish its superiority, ideologies and style within the artistic community of Europe. These movements, being Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, ultimately spread far beyond the confines of Europe and made modern art an international entity which can still be felt in today’s artistic world.