END PAPERS Alphonse Mucha, Printed Velveteen Cushion Cover, 1899–1900.
rt Nouveau was an international style characterized by its innovation and decorativeness. Ephemeral, if compared to other styles, it commenced in the late nineteenth century and lasted until the early twentieth century. Essentially European, it burgeoned simultaneously throughout several countries. Art Nouveau was a groundbreaking phenomenon. Its symbolic elements and exponents had a tremendous influence over graphic design, architecture, the decorative arts, and the contemporary artist and designer. The term Art Nouveau arose from Samuel Bing’s gallery, Salon de l’Art Nouveau in Paris, where Japanese and avant-garde art from Europe and America was displayed and sold. Other names included the “Liberty style,” the “modern style,” the “Secession style,” “Jugendstil,” “le style metro,” and “style nouille” (noodle style). Influenced by Japanese art, particularly by ukiyo-e, it focused on nature and its essential attribute was the use of a sinuous, asymmetrical line taking the form of delicate, meandering natural objects which included vine tendrils, flower stalks and buds, and animal features. This undulating line could follow a whiplashing path or stream across with grace and elegance. The style’s approach was totally revolutionizing as the period in which it developed. Its intent was to break the connection with the historical style that preceded it—opposing academicism’s repetition of styles from the past and naturalism’s aim to replicate aspects of everyday life. Alongside, it was a movement interested in bringing down the barrier between the fine and applied arts. Artists from this movement responded to the technological progress of the Industrial Revolution with the use of new materials and with a vision of a new art for a new time—of a modern style, all-encompassing, that would support their belief that all arts should work in harmony in order to produce a “total work of art.” Art Nouveau was most prevalent in terms of graphic design, architecture, and the decorative arts.
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Art Nouveau transfigured graphic design with its novel
central in this change. Chéret shifted to works with simpler
approach and enhanced it with the new possibilities offered by
designs, larger figures and lettering, and a more vivid color
commercial printing at the time. Designers wanted their art to
scheme. Grasset aimed toward Art Nouveau with his fluid line,
touch all aspects of everyday life. The improvements in trans- floral designs and his peculiar “coloring-book style”—features portation and communication, and the vast art periodicals that
that can be seen in his exhibition poster of 1894. In England
circulated during the last decade of the nineteenth century
the “Liberty style” was directed mainly towards graphic design
eased the interaction between artists from different countries
and illustration. The Studio was one of the initial European art
and the diffusion of art and design across Europe.
periodicals. It featured works of various artists and designers including those of Aubrey Beardsley, which were characterized
The evolution from the Victorian Era to Art Nouveau was
by a remarkable pen line, absence of color and unusual but
gradual. Jules Chéret and Eugène Grasset were graphic artists
striking imagery.
Graphic Design PREVIOUS PAGE Jules Chéret, La Loïe Fuller, 1893. Eugéne Grasset, Exhibition Poster, 1894.
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT Jan Theodoor Toorop, Poster for Delftsche Slaolie, 1895. Albert Angus Turbayne, Macmillan’s Illustrated Standard Novels, “Peacock” Edition, 1903. Aubrey Beardsley, Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, 1894. Aubrey Beardsley, First Cover for The Studio, 1893.
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In France, design was being redefined by artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who revolutionized poster design, the assiduous illustrator Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, and the iconic Alphonse Mucha. The soul of Art Nouveau was found in Mucha’s work. The essential elements of his pieces included romanticized female figures, fantasy, and floral forms and sophisticated designs that became a hallmark of the movement. His poster for Job cigarette papers is elegant and highly ornamented— cornerstone of his style. Henri van de Velde’s dynamic design as represented in the poster for Tropon food concentrate and the works of Victor Horta established Belgian Art Nouveau as significantly influential. Designer and illustrator Jan Toorop
was a major exponent of the style in the Netherlands as was the multifaceted Otto Eckmann in Germany. Eckmann participated in Jugend, the new and popular magazine at the time that incorporated Art Nouveau elements and that
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became the source of the term Jugendstil. In Italy, designers produced high-spirited, elegant and luxurious poster designs. William H. Bradley’s inventive works served in the incursion of Art Nouveau into America. THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Henri van de Velde, Poster for Tropon Food Concentrate, 1899. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Moulin Rouge: La Goulue, 1891. Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, “Tornee du chat noir” Poster, 1896. William H. Bradley, Chap-book Thanksgiving Poster, 1895. William H. Bradley, Chap-book May Poster, 1895.
NEXT PAGE Alphonse Mucha, Poster for Job Cigarette Papers, 1898.
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Architecture In Architecture, Art Nouveau fused adornment and struc- and brickwork. Unequivocally, the stylish, roundabout Art ture. Constructive elements adopted biomorphic shapes
Nouveau line featured in other forms of art and design was
and architects applied the theory of structure giving it an
utilized in architecture. In general, buildings constructed
ornamental function. This architectural style was character- under this style incorporated asymmetrical shapes, curved ized by its diversity of materials such as iron, glass, ceramic, and stained glass, arches, mosaics and Japanese motifs.
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The complete manifestation of Art Nouveau architecture arose in Belgium, particularly in the work of Victor Horta. Horta’s buildings such as the Maison Tassel revealed the homogeneous aspect of the sinuous line, both structural and decorative. Hector Guimard is recognized as the most prominent figure of French Art Nouveau. With works like his famous entrances for the Paris Métro, he was one of the readiest architects to take up Horta’s line principle. Architects of the Art Nouveau style were
PREVIOUS PAGE Victor Horta, Hôtel Tassel (interior), 1893.
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT Victor Horta, Hôtel Tassel (exterior), 1893.
devoted designers. Encompassing all aspects of their edifica- Hector Guimard, Paris Metro Entrance, 1900. tions, they would embark on all-encompassing commissions, Hector Guimard, Le Castel Béranger, 1894–1898. designing every element including appliances and accessories.
Henri Deglane, Albert Louvet, Albert Thomas and Charles Girault, Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées (detail), 1897–1900.
Decorative Arts In the spirit of Art Nouveau, artists extended their work to reach every aspect of life and produced not individual pieces, but a whole environment. Furniture, pottery, glassworks, and jewelry were among the vast array of possibilities. The most prolific artists of Art Nouveau decorative arts were Victor Horta and Henri Van de Velde from Belgium, from France, Eugène Gaillard, Edouard Colonna, and Emile GallÊ, and in America, Louis Comfort Tiffany with his mastery of glass and his abstractions of natural forms. The sophisticated and ornamental designs of the Art Nouveau style required an almost inexhaustible source of invention from the artist together with the view of producing, not individual, but communal works that would
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harmonize as a whole.
Louis Comfort Tiffany, Fravile Goose-Neck Vase, 1896.
9 THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Georges De Feure, Guilded Furniture and Silk Wall-Covering, 1900. Charles Plumet and Tony Selmershemi, Dressing Table, 1900. Edouard Colonna, Vase, 1900–1902. Otto Eckmann, Vase, 1898. Henry van de Velde, Candelabra, 1898– 899. Georges Fouquet, Winged Serpent Corsage Ornament, 1902. Georges Fouquet, Orchid, 1900.
Art Nouveau, with its emblematic line of biomorphic but elegant nature, became the first popular style of modern art incorporating ideas forged on the basis of creating art proper of its time—of a period of great technological advancement that
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supplicated for a ‘new art’ that would be fresh and that would depart from the historicism of past styles. Branching from its principles, this movement sought to destroy the conceptions about the fine arts and applied arts that had established them as incompatible. A pioneering style of modernism, Art Nouveau influenced a variety of contemporary designers like Jessica Hische and Irina Vinnik, among others. Their designs
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE
allude to the stylish, undulating line. Styles of the past like Art
Jude Landry, Lecture Poster for Jessica Hische, 2011.
Nouveau have become sources of inspiration for new artists and designers who create works as innovative, fresh, and revolutionary as those originally produced.
Quakeulf2, Art Pellicule, 2008. Irina Vinnik, May Calendar Illustration, 2011.
NEXT PAGE Alphonse Mucha, Ilsée Title-Page, 1897.
Unlike the static ornamentation of nearly all other stylistic periods, in Art Nouveau it is always at one and the same time moving and in a state of equilibrium. Deep down there is a striving to subdue movement by means of well balanced harmony, , , , Madsen 15