Building the Bridge 2 England, America, Germany 4 Artists of the Movement Jules ChÊret 6 Eugène Grasset 7 Otto Eckmann 8 Privet Livemont 8 Peter Behrens 8 Legacy 10 Bibliography & Image Credits 11 Colophon 12
The Art Nouveau movement was an internationally innovative bridge, leading the world away from the tired styles of Victorian art into the modern age. The movement included groundbreaking designs of all types of media, including but not limited to posters, packages, dishes, furniture, and buildings. It quickly became a global decorative style and flourished within two decades (c. 1890-1910) before it faded out just as swiftly as it spread.4 Art Nouveau followed directly after the Arts and Crafts movement and was very much influenced by Japanese woodblock prints during a time where people were growing tired of the traditional repetitive approaches and decorative clichĂŠs.3 Artists began to pull away from the usual ornamentation of the Victorian era. People were not only
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straying away from the well-worn design, they were also living in a time when scientific rationalism was a growing topic and traditional religious beliefs and social norms were being challenged.4 Many posters and designs were symbolic of topics such as birth, life, growth, death and decay. The period in itself was a time for growth and renewal. New transportation and communication technologies were also emerging, making the spread of the new design styles much quicker. Print media and international exhibitions provided for interaction between artists from all over the world.4 As a result, Art Nouveau consists of an extremely wide range of styles. The term art nouveau originated from a 1985 gallery in Paris, run by art dealer Samuel Bing. The gallery was named Salon de l’Art
Nouveau.4 As opposed to the ornamental styles of past designs, Art Nouveau took things in an entirely new direction, quite fitting for its name, which means, “new art.”4 The Victorian style design took historical approaches in which ornaments were placed simply as borders or accents to the page. Design of Art Nouveau rejected these deeprooted ideas and introduced ornamental designs that were integrated into the whole composition of a piece, rather than remaining separate. The free-flowing designs dominated the spatial area while maintaining unified decoration structure and intended function.4 The style’s identifying visual quality is its organic, plantlike line. The graceful curves and lines could create either a “whiplash energy” or “flow with elegant grace.”2 Partially inspired by Japanese art, flowers (such as
roses and lilies) became frequent themes in the various types of art. Other reoccurring motifs included vine tendrils, birds (mostly peacocks), and the human female form.4 Contrary to common belief, the revolution of Art Nouveau didn’t happen spontaneously. Decorative ornament and furniture went through many gradual changes since 1815.3zz One of the first books to recognize Art Nouveau for its significance in the development of twentieth-century art was Pioneers of Modern Design, published in 1936 by Nikolaus Pevsner.4 There is much debate about its origins, but the art movement was said to have started in England.3 Quite rapidly, the new ideas for design spread around the world creating many variations of the exciting new styles.
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In England, the art movement concentrated
In America, British and French graphic art
mainly on graphic design and illustration as opposed to other areas of the world that
entered and immediately changed America’s views, giving them a new approach to graphic
were more passionate about architectural and product design.4 France, on the other
design. In 1889, 1891, and 1892, Harper’s magazines used covers from Eugène Grasset,
hand, had a different passion for Art Nouveau. Rather than decorating “schematically
literally importing the new movement into America.4 In the mid-1890s, Art Nouveau
stylized” flowers and wildlife, illustrators and designers embellished new forms with
became a significant force in Belgium and the Netherlands. Some artists in these areas
sculpted ornamentation that retained flowers’ natural grace.3 They also showed figures
added their own variations to the new art.4
to their best advantage, and shadow and light played an important role in French Nouveau.3 In 1881, the style and the poster industry began to boom after censorship restrictions were lifted from all but churches, polls, or areas designated for official notices as a result of freedom of the press concerns.4
In Germany, Art Nouveau was called Jugenstil, meaning “youth style.” The name derived from a new magazine called Jugend, or youth, began in Munich in 1896.4 From Munich, the magazine quickly spread all over Germany. Jugendstil contained strong French and British influences while at the same
time it remained tied to traditional academic
designers, illustrators, and more made many
art. The Germans had a high interest in medieval letterforms and therefore included
uniquely significant contributions to the whole movement either individually or as a
these styles within their nouveau designs.
whole. Some of the biggest influences to Art Nouveau include Jules Chéret, Eugène Grasset,
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Even with the huge stir that these new innovative ideas caused, and the impact that it had around the world, the era came to an end as quickly as it began. Eventually it strayed away from its original ambitions and became a more “expensive and elitist style.”3 The unique style could not lend itself to cheap imitation or mass production so it inevitably faded into the modernism of the twentieth century.3 Countless artists contributed to this tremendously innovative transition from the Victorian era to modernism. Architects,
Otto Eckmann, Privet Livemont, and Peter Behrens.
Jules Chéret was born in Paris in 1836 and lived until 1933.4 His father was an impoverished typesetter who paid four hundred francs for thirteen-year-old Chéret to attend a three-year lithographic apprenticeship. After Chéret’s training was complete, he worked as a lithographic craftsman and renderer for several firms.4 In addition to his newly gained lithographic skills, he also took drawing classes. At the age of eighteen, Chéret traveled to London where he was unsuccessful in finding work. After only six months, he returned to Paris. Chéret was convinced that pictorial lithographic posters would replace typographic letterpress posters.4 When he was twenty-two years old, he created a poster for Offenbach’s operetta Orephée aux Enfers, which created a unity of word and image. Soon after, he returned to London where he gained extensive design and production experience.4 In 1866, Chéret established his own printing firm with the financial help of philanthropist and perfume manufacturer, Eugéne Rimmel, whom Chéret developed a close association and friendship with over several years.4 During the
1870s, he began to move away from Victorian complexity. His designs became more simplified and the scale of the lettering and major figures that he used increased.4 In 1881, Chéret sold his company and became the artistic director for the new and larger printing firm Imprimerie Chaix.4 This gave him much satisfaction because he was able to spend much more time designing and producing art. His identifiable compositions consisted of “central figure(s) in animated gesture, surrounded by swirls of color, secondary figures or props, and bold lettering that echoes shapes and gestures of figure.”4 He also used many different colors and effects including stipple, soft watercolorlike washes, bold calligraphic chunks of color, scratching, splattering, and more. In 1890, he was named to the Legion of Honor by the French government for developing a new branch of art that advanced printing and served the needs of the commercial industry.4 During his career he designed over one-thousand posters and has been considered the “father of the modern poster.”4
Eugène Grasset played a major role in the Art Nouveau movement, and was considered to be the first illustrator and designer to challenge Chéret in public popularity. He was Swiss-born in 1841 and lived until 1917.4 His father, Samuel Joseph Grasset, was an artist, sculptor and decorator. Grasset learned to draw, and entered Zurich’s Polytechnicum where he attended architecture classes.3 He also studied medieval art with a great passion and developed a love of exotic Asian art.4 These elements can be easily seen intermingled within the compositions of his works. In 1869 and 1870, Grasset worked in his hometown as a theater set designer, a painter, and a sculptor.3 In 1883, he paved the way for the movement with his two-year project, Histore des quatre fils Aymon, meaning Tale of the Four Sons of Aymon, which he designed and illustrated. He used decorative borders that framed its contents and integrated his illustrations and text to create a sort of unity.4 His style was quickly embraced. In 1885, he produced his first poster for Fêtes de Paris, which was the start of his career as a poster artist.4 He received his first poster commission in 1886.4 Throughout his career, he designed furniture, stained glass, textiles and books. In his illustrations, thick black contours lock in forms into flat area of color, resembling medieval stained glass windows. His style entailed a traditional foundation while implementing flowing line, unique color, and floral motifs.4
Image 1: Jules Chéret, “L’aureole du midi, Pétrole de Sureté,” 1893.
Image 2: Jules Chéret, “Palais de Glace, Champs-Èlysée,” 1893.
Image 3: Eugène Grasset, exhibition poster, c. 1894.
Privet Livemont was born in Belgium in 1861. He traveled to Paris where he remained for six years before returning home. Throughout his lifetime he was a teacher and painter as well as a poster designer.4 In total, Livemont developed nearly three dozen posters. His style was inspired by the idealized women, tendrilous hair, and lavish ornament of Alphonse Mucha, a young Czech artist who played a fundamental role in the development of Art Nouveau.4 Livemont’s own style is distinguished by double contour lines that separate the figure from the background. His posters were also often outlined by a thick white band which increased the images impact when placed on billboards.4 Livemont made significant contributions to the Art Nouveau in Belgium, and passed away 1936. Otto Eckmann was born in 18 65 in Hamburg. He received commercial training, and then went on to study at the Kunstgewerbeschulen (School for the Applied Arts) in Hamburg and Nuremberg.5 He later studied painting at the Munich Art Academy between 1885 and 1890. 5
Although he was successful at painting, Eckmann moved on to graphic and craft design in 1894.5 Eckmann revitalized typography by combining medieval and roman styles. Some of his illustrations were drawn with a brush rather than a pen.4 He produced five cover illustrations and numerous decorative orders for the German magazine Jugend. Throughout his career he also designed jewelry, objects, furniture, and women’s fashions.4 In the midst of his career, he became a designer and consultant for the General Electric Company in Germany (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, or AEG). In the year 1900, he developed a very important typeface that he called Eckmannschrift.4 In 1902, Eckmann was afflicted with tuberculosis which led to his death at age thirty-seven.4 Peter Behrens was another artist who contributed to the German Jugendstil movement. He was born in Hamburg in 1868 and lived until 1940.6 Just as Eckmann had done, Behrens studied at Kunstgewerbeschule from 1886 to 1889. He later attended Kunstschule in Karlsruhe and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
He joined the Jugendstil movement in 1890, when he began work as a painter and graphic artist in Munich.6 Behrens is widely known for his large multicolor woodblock prints, which were inspired by French Art Nouveau and Japanese prints.4 He also experimented with ornaments and vignettes of abstract design through the publications Der Bunte Vogel and Die Insel where he became the artistic advisor and publisher. He designed Die Insel’s trademark which became “one of the finest” trademarks of Jugendstil.4 Together with the influences of other German architects and designers of the movement who were inspired by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, Behrens played a key role in the development of early twentieth century modern design,4 taking part in opening up uncharted territories for future generations.6
Image 4: Image 4: Privet Livemont, “Absinthe Robette” poster, 1898.
Image 5: Privet Livemont, poster for Rajah coffee, 1899.
Image 6: Otto Eckmann, Jugend cover, 1896.
The Art Nouveau movement was a revolutionary transitional step toward modernism and played a substantial role in the development of art as we see it today. The initiators and contributors to the movement broke away from the chains of the historical, tiresome styles of the past and plunged head-first into artistic freedom. The rapid spread of new ideas ignited fire that allowed people to become imaginative and creative in their designs. The new art layout designs and styles played straight into the Art Deco movement of the 1920s, and the new independence from Victorian styles paved the way for out-of-the-box thinking of the future. The style of Art Nouveau was much more than surface decoration. It played a pivotal role in the evolution of all aspects of design.4
Image 7: Image 7: Peter Bherens, The Kiss, 1898.
1
Cheryl, Yau. “Know Your Type: Baskerville.” Idsgn (a Design Blog). 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. <http://idsgn.org/posts/know-your-type-baskerville/>.
2
Harris Design. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://harristype.com/fonts/fonts.html>
3
Lahor, Jean, and Rebecca Brimacombe. Art Nouveau. New York: Parkstone International, 2009. 77-78, 83 85, 87, 106, 111, 122, 136, 146, 168, 196 , 240, 247, 251, 281, 848, 849, 851, 858, 859. Print.
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Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis. “Art Nouveau.” Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. 5th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. 200-205, 214, 220, 222-224, 226. Print. “Otto Eckmann Biography - Infos - Art Market.” Art Directory. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://www.otto-eckmann.com/>. “Peter Behrens Biography - Infos - Art Market.” Art Directory. Web. 5 Nov. 2014. <http://www.behrens-peter.com/>.
All Images were retrieved from Meggs’, listed above. Jules Chéret, “L’aureole du midi, Pétrole de Sureté,” 1893, pg. 203 Jules Chéret, “Palais de Glace, Champs-Èlysée” (Ice Palace, Champs-Èlysée), 1893, pg. 203 Eugène Grasset, exhibition poster, c. 1894, pg. 205 Privet Livemont, “Absinthe Robette” poster, 1898, pg. 223 Privet Livemont, poster for Rajah coffee, 1899, pg. 223 Otto Eckmann, Jugend cover, 1896, pg. 227 Peter Bherens, The Kiss, 1898, pg. 227
About the Type The main text of this catalog was set in Baskerville, primarily using its regular format, with some hints of bold and bold italic. John Baskerville, master type-founder and printer, designed the typeface in 1754. The typeface is considered a transitional typeface because it is in-between classical typefaces and the high contrast modern faces. It is a widely-used typeface and is known for its crisp edges, high contrast and generous proportions.1 Titles and page numbers were set in Bellerose Light. This typeface is based on the typeface Capone. Bellerose Light was designed by Harris Design, a company that specializes in corporate and brand identity, magazine layout and design, custom typography for packaging and display, commercial font design, and more.2 Design This catalog was designed and assembled by Becky Rodriguez. Description Catalog Design November 26, 2014