The Intoxicating Effects of Beauty - Jugendstil Art at the Dortmund Museum MKK

From Paris to Dortmund

The Intoxicating Effects of Beauty

Dortmund on the Way to Modernity

The turn of the 20th century was seen by many contemporaries as a phase of upheavals. While for some people the end of the 19th century was associated with a mood of doom and gloom, others euphorically welcomed the beginning of the new century as the dawn of a new era. Artists also saw the turn of the century as a new beginning. Their task was to rethink and redesign all areas of life.

The concept of beauty plays a central role in Jugendstil art. For one of the main protagonists, Henry van de Velde, the new modern style was also associated with a modern idea of beauty, which he discovered in the curved, moving line as an expression of the dynamism and harmony of life. Flowing lines in Jugendstil contributed significantly to idealizing the image of the woman. They can also be found in the movements of modern dance, as represented by the American dancers Loïe Fuller, Ruth St. Denis and Isadora Duncan, not forgetting the Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.

Around 1900 Dortmund was anything but a beautiful city. Since the mid 19th century the former “Free and Imperial City of Dortmund” had grown from a small provincial town to a dynamic industrial centre with a constant influx of immigrants. Because of the resulting social problems, housing issues and deficits in the technical infrastructure, ideas of beautifying the city initially receded into the background.

Around 1900 the capital of the young artistic movement was Paris. It attracted numerous, often destitute artists who wanted to participate in the pulsating life of the art metropolis. One of these was the young Bernhard Hoetger from Hörde (today Dortmund). Paris was also a magnet for art collectors and dealers. The most important personality in this field was the Franco-German art dealer Siegfried (actually Samuel) Bing. His “L‘Art Nouveau“ gallery, founded in Paris in 1895, gave its name to the French direction of the new style.

The Paris World Exhibition in 1900 was undoubtedly the highlight of Art Nouveau. Here visitors could not only learn about the latest achievements in technology, science, culture and art, but also acquire works of art in a modern style. Among the buyers at the Paris World Exhibition were the directors of the new arts and crafts museums, among them Albert Baum, the founding director of the Dortmund Museum, who purchased numerous works “from the best workshops“ of the time.

In their search for beauty, the artists studied the richness of nature‘s forms. East Asian art, especially that of Japan, also served as an important stimulus.

Forms and motifs inspired by nature and Japanese art can be found in all areas of Jugendstil art. Luxurious products such as the artistic glasses designed by the Frenchman Émile Gallé and the American Louis Comfort Tiffany are today examples of the ideal of Jugendstil beauty. It can also be found in everyday products, in porcelain and in fine pewterware.

The search for new ornamentation for which imaginative and innovative solutions were found is closely linked to the concept of Jugendstil beauty. Whether richly decorated or consciously designed in a simple fashion - none of the periods that followed Jugendstil ever again dealt with ornamentation and its application in a similarly comprehensive way.

Major design changes in the cityscape were only made in the years after the turn of the century.

Large representative buildings such as the Municipal Theatre, designed by the Munich architect Martin Dülfer and built between 1902 and 1904, now served to adorn the city. Numerous new buildings created an urban metropolitan flair for pleasure and consumption. The Museum of Arts and Crafts (founded in 1883), the Arts and Crafts School (founded in 1904), and the People‘s Library (opened in 1908), were municipal institutions that influenced education and taste in the rising industrial metropolis.

Despite the destruction caused by the Second World War, Jugendstil has left visible traces in Dortmund‘s cityscape. The love of ornamentation can be seen on many facades of buildings in the old housing stock in Dortmund‘s urban expansion areas. Jugendstil also found its way into industrial architecture. The entrance to the machine hall of the Zollern II/IV colliery, built in 1902-03 from plans by the Berlin architect Bruno Möhring, is today a world-famous example of this symbiosis.

The Intoxicating Effect of Beauty JUGENDSTIL ART

JUGENDSTIL ART The Intoxicating Effect of Beauty The unity of art and life was the declared goal of a new movement that spread internationally around 1900. It was named Jugendstil after the magazine Jugend, which made the new ideas known. The movement‘s objective was to bring about a comprehensive reform of all areas of life. The arts were of particular importance, for they should contribute to the breakthrough into a beautiful and better future.

Beauty played a central role in Jugendstil art. The artists believed that creating an aesthetically pleasing environment could have a positive effect on human beings. They wanted their art to stir up people‘s souls, and sweep away their hearts “to rapturous enthusiasm and unexpected delight“ (August Endell, 1898).

The exhibition is dedicated to attitudes to life around 1900. It focuses on the artistic achievements, but also on the upheavals during the phase of cultural awakening that came to an end with the First World War. The central theme is the pioneering idea of using art to shape all areas of life.

Designs for a New Society

Universal Artists and Gesamtkunstwerk

Jugendstil and Modernism

The Jugendstil concept of using art to shape all areas of life was associated with the idea of a comprehensive reform of all areas of society. In reaction to the progress of industrialization and mechanization, the rapid growth of cities and the resulting social tensions and environmental problems, reformers at the turn of the century thought it desirable to live in harmony with nature. Their credo was “Back to Nature“ and the propagation of a simple life.

Nudism, hiking movements, nutritional reforms and natural philosophy all offered recommendations for a healthy lifestyle.

Numerous Jugendstil artists were active as universal artists. Their comprehensive design activities do justice to the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk, an overall work of art characteristic of Jugendstil art.

Around 1900 Darmstadt became a centre of the new style. Here members of the Mathildenhöhe artists‘ colony created unique spatial works of art for themselves and other people. This is exemplified

by Joseph Maria Olbrich‘s salon for a lady, designed by the Darmstadt court furniture manufacturer Julius Glückert, as well as by a dining room designed

by Wilhelm Thiele which was also manufactured by Glückert in Darmstadt.

Richard Riemerschmid was one of the most important Jugendstil architects and designers. His extensive artistic oeuvre exemplifies the increasing industrial implementation of artistic designs.

Riemerschmid‘s furniture designs in particular show a trend-setting change from handcrafted single items to serial machine production, as evidenced by the so-called “machine furniture programme” of the Dresdener Werkstätten für Handwerkskunst beginning in 1906.

The ideals of naturalness and simplicity were best embodied in the countryside, where people could live in harmony with themselves and the environment. At the same time the aim was to improve the living conditions of people in the big cities. Garden city housing estates should enable people to live in close proximity to nature. People‘s parks were created in the cities to break up urban spaces and offer city dwellers places to unwind.

The reformers did not only take people‘s private surroundings into consideration. Their designs for a new society ranged from reshaping the world of work to creating individual world views. To depict these positions the exhibition features works by Frank Lloyd Wright, Bernhard Hoetger and Ferdinand Hodler.

Vienna was another Jugendstil centre. Around 1900 Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser were the main representatives of a decorative, elegant style characterized by clear lines and the use of precious materials. The Wiener Werkstätte, founded in 1903, was an amalgamation of artists and workshops that broke new ground in communication between the general public, designers and craftsmen.

There were many cases of fruitful cooperation between artists and manufacturers, for example in the field of furniture production. Furniture companies often commissioned artists to furnish their exhibition and business premises. Interior designs presented in exhibitions generally had an exemplary character that should not be underestimated. They offered models of furnishing in the new modern style and familiarized the public with the artistic ideas associated with the Gesamtkunstwerk.

Along with Henry van de Velde and Peter Behrens, Richard Riemerschmid was one of the co-founders of the Deutsche Werkbund in 1907, whose goal was to „refine craft work“ in close cooperation between industry and trade. Its members were very soon active in designing for companies and in the field of advertising. Peter Behrens‘ comprehensive activities for AEG are regarded as particularly trend-setting.

Here the profession of a modern designer is already on the horizon.

The Jugendstil era ended with the First World War which witnessed the dawn of a different political and social era. In 1919, one year after the end of the war, the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar. Its representatives strove for a fundamental reform of artistic work and merged craftsmanship, art and technology into a new entity. The reform strategies of the era around 1900 had paved the way for them.