ELECTICISM (19 th

and 20th Century)

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of
assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary
insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases. However, this is often without
conventions or rules dictating how or which theories were combined.
It can sometimes seem inelegant or lacking in simplicity, and eclectics are sometimes criticized for
lack of consistency in their thinking. It is, however, common in many fields of study. For example,
most psychologists accept certain aspects of behaviorism, but do not attempt to use the theory to
explain all aspects of human behavior.
ORIGIN: Eclecticism was first recorded to have been practiced by a group of ancient Greek and
Roman philosophers who attached themselves to no real system, but selected from existing
philosophical beliefs those doctrines that seemed most reasonable to them. Out of this collected
material they constructed their new system of philosophy. The term comes from
the Greek ἐκλεκτικός (eklektikos), literally "choosing the best", and that from ἐκλεκτός (eklektos),
"picked out, select".
 Well known ECLECTICS in Greek philosophy were the Stoics Panaetius and Posidonius, and the New
Academics Carneades and Philo of Larissa. Among the Romans, Cicero was thoroughly eclectic, as
he united the Peripatetic, Stoic, and New Academic doctrines. Other eclectics
included Varro and Seneca.

ART NOUVEA
Art Nouveau was an innovative international style of modern art that became fashionable from
about 1890 to the First World War. Arising as a reaction to 19th-century designs dominated by
historicism in general and neoclassicism in particular, it promulgated the idea of art and design as
part of everyday life. Henceforth artists should not overlook any everyday object, no matter how
functional it might be. This aesthetic was considered to be quite revolutionary and new, hence its
name - New Art - or Art Nouveau. Hence also the fact that it was applied to a host of different forms
including architecture, fine art, applied art, and decorative art. 

Art Nouveau is usually deemed a matter of 'style' rather than a philosophy: but, in fact, distinctive
ideas and not only fanciful desires prompted its appearance. Common to all the most consistently
Art Nouveau creators were a determination to push beyond the bounds of historicism - that
exaggerated concern with the notions of the past which characterizes the greater part of 19th-
century design: they sought, in a fresh analysis of function and a close study of natural forms, a new
aesthetic. It is true that the outer reaches of Art Nouveau are full of mindless pattern-making but
there was, at and around the centre, a marvelous sequence of works in which the decorative and the
 functional fuse to novel and compelling effect. Art Nouveau means much more than a single look or
mood: we are reminded of tall grasses in light wind, or swirling lines of stormy water, or intricate
vegetation - all stemming from organic nature: an interest in which should be understood as
proceeding from a sense of life's order lost or perverted amidst urban industrial stress.

Definition, Characteristics:

There is no single definition or meaning of Art Nouveau. But the following are distinguishing factors.

(1) Art Nouveau philosophy was in favor of applying artistic designs to everyday objects, in order to
make beautiful things available to everyone. No object was too utilitarian to be "beautified".

(2) Art Nouveau saw no separation in principle between fine art (painting and sculpture) and applied
or decorative arts (ceramics, furniture, and other practical objects).

(3) In content, the style was a reaction to a world of art which was dominated by the precise
geometry of neoclassical forms. It sought a new graphic design language, as far away as possible
from the historical and classical models employed by the arts academies.

(4) Art Nouveau remains something of an umbrella term which embraces a variety of stylistic
interpretations: some artists used new low-cost materials and mass production methods while
others used more expensive materials and valued high craftsmanship.

Types of Designs

In line with the Art Nouveau philosophy that art should become part of everyday life, it employed flat,
decorative patterns that could be used in all art forms. Typical decorative elements include leaf and
tendril motifs, intertwined organic forms, mostly curvaceous in shape, although right-angled designs
were also prevalent in Scotland and in Austria. Art made in this style typically depicted lavish birds,
flowers, insects and other zoo morphs, as well as the hair and curvaceous bodies of beautiful
women. For Art Nouveau architectural designs, see the exaggerated bulbous forms of the Spanish
architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926), and the stylistic Parisian Metro entrances of Hector Guimard
(1867-1942).

Art Nouveau buildings have many of these features:

 Asymmetrical shapes  Mosaics

 Extensive use of arches and curved forms  Stained glass
 Curved glass  Japanese motifs
 Curving, plant-like embellishments
 Other Names for Art Nouveau:

As it moved through Europe, Art Nouveau went through several phases and took on a variety of
names.

 Style Moderne, in France  Sezession, in Austria

 Style Nouille (Noodle Style), in France  Stile Liberty, in Italy
 Jugendstil, in Germany  Arte Noven, in Spain

Examples:

 The Wainwright Building in St. Louis, Missouri, by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler
 Wagner Villa II, 1912 by Otto Wagner
 Parque Güell in Barcelona, Spain by Antoni Gaudí
 Majolika Haus in Vienna, Austria by Otto Wagner
 The Marquette Building in Chicago, Illinois, by William Holabird and Martin Roche with Coydon T.
Purdy
 The Municipal House in Prague, Czech Republic
 Karlsplatz Stadtbahn Station in Vienna by Otto Wagner

INTERNATIONAL STYLE (1930-1950)

The International Style is the name of a major architectural style that is said to have emerged in the
1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of modern architecture, as first defined by Americans Henry-
Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932, with an emphasis more on architectural style, form and
aesthetics than the social aspects of the modern movement as emphasized in Europe.

ORIGIN: The International style was born in Western Europe in the 1920s from the precedent
breaking work of noted architects Le Corbusier in France, and Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe
in Germany. Striving to create a new modern form and functional theory of architecture, these
architects abandoned tradition to create a pared down, unornamented style that emphasized
geometric shapes, viewing it as architecture for the modern age. Utilizing new construction
techniques and materials, buildings of the International style were starkly different than those of
previous eras in not just appearance.

It developed in Europe and the United States in the 1920s and ’30s and became the dominant
tendency in Western architecture during the middle decades of the 20th century. 
Characteristics:
 Rectilinear forms; light, taut plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of applied
ornamentation and decoration; open interior spaces; and a visually weightless quality
engendered by the use of cantilever construction. Glass and steel, in combination with
usually less visible reinforced concrete, are the characteristic mater

The International Style grew out of three phenomena that confronted architects in the late
19th century:

(1) Architects’ increasing dissatisfaction with the continued use in stylistically eclectic buildings of a
mix of decorative elements from different architectural periods and styles that bore little or no
relation to the building’s functions

(2) The economical creation of large numbers of office buildings and other commercial, residential,
and civic structures that served a rapidlyindustrializing society

(3) The development of new building technologies centring on the use of iron and steel, reinforced
concrete, and glass. These three phenomena dictated the search for an honest, economical, and
utilitarian architecture that would both use the new materials and satisfy society’s new building
needs while still appealing to aesthetic taste. 

ACADEMICISM or ACADEMISM (1930-1950)

Academic art, or Academicism, is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of
European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the
standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which practiced under the movements
of Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and the art that followed these two movements in the attempt
to synthesize both of their styles, and which is best reflected by the paintings of William-Adolphe
Bouguereau, Thomas Couture, and Hans Makart. In this context it is often called " academism",
"academicism", "L'art pompier", and "eclecticism", and sometimes linked with "historicism" and
"syncretism".

It is traditionally used to describe the style of true-to-life but high-minded realist

painting and sculpture championed by the European academies of art, notably the French Academy
of Fine Arts.

The art influenced by academies in general is also called " academic art." In this context as new
styles are embraced by academics, the new styles come to be considered academic, thus what was
at one time a rebellion against academic art becomes academic art

ORIGINS: From the 16th century onwards, a number of specialized art schools sprang up across
Europe, beginning in Italy. These schools - known as 'academies' - were originally sponsored by a
patron of the arts (typically the pope, a King or a Prince), and undertook to educate young artists
according to the classical theories of Renaissance art. The development of these artistic academies
was a culmination of the effort (begun by Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo) to upgrade the
status of practising artists, to distinguish them from mere craftsmen engaged in manual labour, and
to emancipate them from the power of the guilds. For more, see History of Academic Art (below).

Characteristics of Academic Art

The most important principles of Academic art, as laid down by the French Academy, can be
expressed as follows:

1. Rationality

The Academy was at pains to promote an "intellectual" style of art. In contrast, say, to the
"sensuous" style of the Rococo, the "socially-aware" style of French Realism, the "visual" style of
the Impressionism, or the "emotional" style of Expressionism. It considered fine art to be an
intellectual discipline, involving a high degree of reason, thus the "rationality" of a painting was all-
important. Such rationality was exemplified by a work's subject-matter, its use of classical or
religious allegory, and/or by its references to classical, historical or allegorical subjects. Careful
planning - through preliminary sketching or use of wax models - was also valued.

2. Message

Great importance was placed upon the 'message' of the painting, which should be appropriately
"uplifting" and have a high moral content. This principle was the basis for the official "Hierarchy of
the Genres", a ranking system first announced in 1669, by the Secretary to the French Academy.

The genres were listed in the following order of importance:

(1) History Painting (4) Landscapes
(2) Portrait art (5) Still Life Painting
(3) Genre Painting

The idea was that history paintings were better platforms from which to communicate a highminded
message. A battle scene or a piece ofBiblical art would convey an obvious moral message about (say)
courage or spirituality, whereas a still-life picture of a vase of flowers would struggle to do the same.
In practice, artists succeeded in injecting moral content into all types of pictures, including still lifes.
See, for instance, the genre of vanitas painting, mastered by Harmen van Steenwyck (1612-56) and
others, which typically depicted an array of symbolic objects, all of which conveyed a series of moral
messages based on the futility of life without Christian values.

As well as Christian principles or humanistic qualities, academic artists were encouraged to

communicate some eternal truth or ideal to the viewer. Hence some academic paintings are no more
than simple allegories with names like "Dawn", "Evening", "Friendship" and so on, in which the
essence of these ideals are embodied by a single figure.

3. Other Artistic Conventions

Over time the Academic authorities gradually built up a series of painterly rules and conventions.
Here is a small selection:

• Artists should use 'idealized' rather than 'overly realistic' forms; thus realism - in faces, bodies, or
details of scenes, was discouraged. Ironically, Ingres, the doyen of the Academy, was criticized for
the abnormal length of the model's back in La Grand Odalisque (1814, Louvre).

• History paintings should depict people in historical dress. For example, Benjamin West (1738-1820)
caused a scandal with The Death of General Wolfe (1770, National Gallery of Art, Ottowa), which was
the first major history painting to feature contemporary costume.

• Complex rules governed the use of linear perspective and foreshortening, in keeping with

Renaissance theory. Likewise in the way light was handled, and in matters of chiaroscuro.

• Bright colors should be used sparingly. The debate about the significance of color rumbled on in
the Academy for more than two centuries: see the role of Rubens and Delacroix, as outlined below.

• Color should be naturalistic: grass should be green, and so on. This alone disqualified
Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists from academic approval.

• The paint surface should be smooth with no trace of brushstrokes. Impasto was out, expressive
brushwork was out: the Academy insisted upon a polished finish.

METABOLISM
The word metabolism describes the process of maintaining living cells. Young Japanese architects
after World War II used this word to describe their beliefs about how buildings and cities should be
designed.
The postwar reconstruction of Japan's cities spawned new ideas about the future of urban design
and public spaces. Metabolist architects and designers believed that cities and buildings are not
static entities, but are are ever-changing—organic with a "metabolism." Postwar structures of the
future are thought to have a limited lifespan and should be designed and built to be replaced.
Metabolically designed architecture is built around a spine-like infrastructure with prefabricated,
replaceable cell-like parts easily attached. These 1960s avant-garde ideas became known
as Metabolism.
Metabolism (shinchintaisha?) was a post-war Japanese architectural movement that fused ideas
about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. It had its first
international exposure during CIAM's 1959 meeting and its ideas were tentatively tested by students
from Kenzo Tange's MIT studio.

History: The Metabolist movement filled the void left when the Congrès internationaux
d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), founded in 1928 by Le Corbusier and other Europeans, disbanded in
1959. At the 1960 World Design Conference in Tokyo, the old European ideas about static urbanism
were challenged by a group of young Japanese architects.Metabolism 1960: Proposals for a New
Urbanism documented the ideas and philosophies of Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Kiyonari
Kikutake, and Kisho Kurokawa. Many Metabolists had studied under Kenzo Tange at Tokyo
University's Tange Laboratory.

Example:
A well-known example of Metabolism in architecture is Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower in
Tokyo.

REVIVALISM
Revivalism in architecture is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous
architectural era.
Modern-day revival styles can be summarized within New Classical Architecture, and sometimes
under the umbrella term traditional architecture.
Revivalism evokes principles and styling from an earlier period of architectural history and traditions
— of the same cultural place or from other cultures.

HISTORICISM 
Historicism or also Historism (German: Historismus) comprises artistic styles that draw their
inspiration from recreating historic styles or artisans.[1] This is especially prevalent in architecture,
such as revival architecture. Through combination of different styles or implementation of new
elements, historicism can create completely different aesthetics than former styles. Thus it offers a
great variety of possible designs.

ARTS AND CRAFTS MOVEMENT

The Arts and Crafts movement was an international movement in the decorative and fine arts that
flourished in Europe and North America between 1880 and 1910, emerging in Japan in the 1920s. It
stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms, and often used medieval, romantic or folk
styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and was essentially anti-industrial. It
had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by Modernism in the 1930s, and its
influence continued among craft makers, designers and town planners long afterwards.
The term was first used by T. J. Cobden-Sanderson at a meeting of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition
Society in 1887, although the principles and style on which it was based had been developing in
England for at least twenty years. It was inspired by the writings of the architect Augustus
Pugin (1812–1852), the writer John Ruskin (1819–1900), and the artist William Morris(1834–1896).
The movement developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles, and spread across the British
Empire and to the rest of Europe and North America. It was largely a reaction against the perceived
impoverished state of the decorative arts at the time and the conditions in which they were
produced.
The Arts and Crafts movement initially developed in England during the latter half of the 19th
century. Subsequently this style was taken up by American designers, with somewhat different
results. In the United States, the Arts and Crafts style was also known as Mission style.

BRUTALISM
Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s,
descending from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term
originates from the French word for "raw" in the term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of
material béton brut (raw concrete). British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into
"brutalism" (originally "New Brutalism") to identify the emerging style.
Brutalism became popular with governmental and institutional clients, with numerous examples in
Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the United States, Canada, Brazil, the Philippines, Israel and
Australia. Examples are typically massive in character (even when not large), fortress-like, with a
predominance of exposed concrete construction, or in the case of the "brick brutalists," ruggedly
combine detailed brickwork and concrete. There is often an emphasis on graphically expressing in
the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan the main functions and people-flows
of the buildings. Brutalism became popular for educational buildings (especially university buildings),
but was relatively rare for corporate projects. Brutalism became favoured for many government
projects, high-rise housing, and shopping centres.
In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a
reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of some 1930s and 1940s
architecture. In one critical appraisal by Banham, Brutalism was posited not as a style but as the
expression of an atmosphere among architects of moral seriousness. " Brutalism" as an
architectural critical term was not always consistently used by critics; architects themselves usually
avoided using it altogether. More recently, "brutalism" has become used in popular discourse to
refer to buildings of the late twentieth century that are large or unpopular – as a synonym for
"brutal."
Characteristics:
Brutalist buildings are usually formed with repeated modular elements forming masses representing
specific functional zones, distinctly articulated and grouped together into a unified whole. Concrete
is used for its raw and unpretentious honesty, contrasting dramatically with the highly refined and
ornamented buildings constructed in the elite Beaux-Arts style. Surfaces of cast concrete are made
to reveal the basic nature of its construction, revealing the texture of the wooden planks used for
the in-situ casting forms. Brutalist building materials also include brick, glass, steel, rough-hewn
stone, and gabions. Conversely, not all buildings exhibiting an exposed concrete exterior can be
considered Brutalist, and may belong to one of a range of architectural styles
including Constructivism, International Style,Expressionism, Postmodernism, and Deconstructivism.
Another common theme in Brutalist designs is the exposure of the building's functions—ranging
from their structure and services to their human use—in the exterior of the building. In the  Boston
City Hall, designed in 1962, the strikingly different and projected portions of the building indicate the
special nature of the rooms behind those walls, such as the mayor's office or the city council
chambers. From another perspective, the design of the Hunstanton School included placing the
facility's water tank, normally a hidden service feature, in a prominent, visible tower.
Brutalism as an architectural philosophy was often also associated with a socialist utopian ideology,
which tended to be supported by its designers, especially Alison and Peter Smithson, near the height
of the style. This style had a strong position in the architecture of European communist countries
from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, GDR, USSR, Yugoslavia[5]). In
Czechoslovakia brutalism was presented as an attempt to create a "national" but also "modern
socialist" architectural style.

CHINOISERIE
Chinoiserie (pronounced [ʃinwazʁi], derived from the French word Chinois, meaning "Chinese") is the
European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and East Asian artistic traditions, especially in the
decorative arts, garden design, architecture, literature, theater, and musical performances.[1] First
appearing in the 17th century, this trend was popularized in the 18th century due to the rise in trade
with China and East Asia.[2] Chinoiserie pictorial art is characterized by asymmetry, an emphasis on
the decorative, and a rejection of Renaissance illusionism. It offered an alternative to the Classical-
revival and Baroque styles that were popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Whimsical and light in
subject matter and appearance, chinoiserie, similar to the Rococo style, provided an option for
anyone who wanted to reject the more rigid classicist notions that were prominent.

Chinoiserie is sometimes considered as "feminine." Prevailing wisdom suggested that part of the
appeal that chinoiserie held for women was that it could be appreciated by the "untutored eye." The
understanding of its aesthetics did not require an education in philosophy or the classics.
[3] Chinoiserie decoration was more frequently confined to the private spaces of a house, for
example bedrooms and dressing rooms. These spaces were more associated with women than the
more public areas of reception rooms, dining rooms or libraries which were considered the territory
of men or mixed company.

Chinoiserie was not universally popular. Some members of society saw the style as "…a retreat from
reason and taste and a descent into a morally ambiguous world based on hedonism, sensation and
values perceived to be feminine."[2] It was viewed as lacking the logic and reason upon which
Antique art had been founded. Architect and author Robert Morris claimed that it "…consisted of
mere whims and chimera, without rules or order, it requires no fertility of genius to put into
execution."[2] Those with a more archaeological view of the East, considered the chinoiserie style,
with its distortions and whimsical approach, to be a mockery of the actual Chinese art and
architecture.[2]Finally, still others believed that an interest in Chinoiserie indicated a pervading
"cultural confusion" in European society

CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in
the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an
avowedly Communist social purpose. Although it was divided into several competing factions, the
movement produced many pioneering projects and finished buildings, before falling out of favour
around 1932. It has left marked effects on later developments in architecture.

Constructivist architecture emerged from the wider constructivist art movement, which grew out
of Russian Futurism. Constructivist art had attempted to apply a three-dimensional cubist vision to
wholly abstract non-objective 'constructions' with a kinetic element. After the Russian Revolution of
1917 it turned its attentions to the new social demands and industrial tasks required of the new
regime. Two distinct threads emerged, the first was encapsulated in Antoine Pevsner's and Naum
Gabo's Realist manifesto which was concerned with space and rhythm, the second represented a
struggle within the Commissariat for Enlightenment between those who argued for pure art and
the Productivistssuch as Alexander Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova and Vladimir Tatlin, a more
socially-oriented group who wanted this art to be absorbed in industrial production. [2]
A split occurred in 1922 when Pevsner and Gabo emigrated. The movement then developed along
socially utilitarian lines. The productivist majority gained the support of the Proletkult and the
magazine LEF, and later became the dominant influence of the architectural group O.S.A.

Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism,[1] is the sociopolitical organization of a society by major
interest groups, or corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labour, military,
patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common interests.[2]It is theoretically based on
the interpretation of a community as an organic body.[3] The term corporatism is based on the Latin
root word "corpus" (plural – "corpora") meaning "body".[4]
In 1881, Pope Leo XIII commissioned theologians and social thinkers to study corporatism and
provide a definition for it. In 1884 inFreiburg, the commission declared that corporatism was a
"system of social organization that has at its base the grouping of men according to the community
of their natural interests and social functions, and as true and proper organs of the state they direct
and coordinate labor and capital in matters of common interest".[5]

Corporatism is related to the sociological concept of structural functionalism.[6] Corporate social

interaction is common within kinshipgroups such as families, clans and ethnicities.[7] In addition to
humans, certain animal species like penguins exhibit strong corporate social organization.[8]
[9] Corporatist types of community and social interaction are common to many ideologies,
including absolutism,capitalism, conservatism, fascism, liberalism, progressivism, reactionism.[10]

Corporatism may also refer to economic tripartism involving negotiations between business, labour,

and state interest groups to establish economic policy.[11] This is sometimes also referred to as neo-
corporatism and is associated with social democracy.