Art Nouveau 2
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau, ornamental style of art that flourished between about 1890 and 1910 throughout Europe and the United States. Art Nouveau is characterized by its use of a long, sinuous, organic line and was employed most often in architecture, interior design, jewelry and glass design, posters, and illustration.
he name was popularized by the Maison de l’Art Nouveau (“House of the New Art”), an art gallery opened in Paris in 1895 by the Franco-German art dealer Siegfried Bing.
Characteristics of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau style is inspired by the natural world, characterized by sinuous, sculptural, organic shapes, arches, curving lines, and sensual ornamentation. Common motifs include stylized versions of leaves, flowers, vines, insects, animals, and other natural elements.
A highly decorative idiom, Art Nouveau typically employed intricate curvilinear patterns of sinuous asymetrical lines, often based on plant-forms (sometimes derived from La Tene forms of Celtic art). Floral and other plant-inspired motifs are popular Art Nouveau designs, as are female silhouettes and forms.
The main style influence for Art Nouveau style
Industrial Revolution can be identified as the main influence of art nouveau. The designers welcomed the technological progress which gave them many aesthetic possibilities such as new materials and processes to create art.
Example of Art Nouveau
Also known as the House of Bones, Casa Battló was remodeled in 1904 by famed architect Antoni Gaudí. It’s defined as an example of Art Nouveau architecture (or its Spanish term Modernisme) in a broad sense,
with its curving facade and use of glass and ironwork
Under the arches of the tower which had become a permanent fixture of the city’s skyline after its construction for the Exposition Universelle of 1889, the restaurant’s Franco-Belge design team created a high Art Nouveau style building made primarily of wood
Colour schemes
are quite muted and sombre and became known as ‘greenery yallery’ – mustard, sage green, olive green, and brown. Team these with lilac, violet and purple, peacock blue.
Art Nouveau vases used natural motifs. The craftsmanship was less formal and used elegant, sinuous lines. Kiwi branches, ranunculus, and callas are wonderful flowers that curve and spiral, perfect for Art Nouveau style designs.
Art Nouveau part of modernism
Modernisme, or Catalan Modernism, is in fact directly linked to Art Nouveau, an architectural style popular between 1890 and 1910 as a response to 19th century historicism.
Bifference Art Nouveau and Victorian design
Art Nouveau used a lighter palette than had been seen before during the Victorian period and white was often used in order to provide a background to other shades. Pastel colours were popular: lilac, a muted salmon and leaf green contrasted with white and black.
Art Nouveau Furniture and Interior Design
Like the Victorian stylistic revivals and the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau was intimately associated with interior decoration at least as much as it was conspicuous on exterior facades. Also like these other styles of the 19th century, Art Nouveau interiors also
strove to create a harmonious, coherent environment that left no surface untouched. Furniture design took center stage in this respect, particularly in the production of carved wood that featured sharp, irregular contours,
often handcrafted but occasionally manufactured using machines. Furniture makers turned out pieces for every use imaginable: beds, chaises, dining room tables and chairs, armoires, sideboards, and lamp stands. The sinuous curves of the designs often fed off the natural grain of woods and was often permanently installed as wall paneling and molding.
In France, the chief Art Nouveau designers included Louis Majorelle, Emile Gallé, and Eugène Vallin, all based in Nancy; and, Tony Selmersheim, Édouard Colonna and Eugène Gaillard,
who worked in Paris – the latter two specifically for Siegfried Bing’s shop named L’Art Nouveau (later giving the whole movement its most common name). In Belgium, the whiplash line and reserved, more angular contours can be seen in the designs of Gustave Serrurier-Bovy and Henry van de Velde, who both admired the works of the English Arts & Crafts artists.
The Italians Alberto Bugatti and Augustino Lauro were well-known for their forays in the style there. Many such designers moved freely between media, often making them hard to categorize: Majorelle, for example, manufactured his own wooden furniture designs and opened up an ironworking foundry, which also produced many of the metal fittings for the glasswork put out by the Daum Brothers’ glassworks.
End Art Nouveau
for Art Nouveau end
By 1914, and with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism
